Looking for more in Author Directory?

Norman Bissell

All of the information on this page has been provided by the author. If you need an author to have specialist skills, experience or knowledge please ask for more information about this ahead of booking them for an event. Please note that Scottish Book Trust cannot carry out Disclosure checks on Live Literature authors for most events. It is the responsibility of the person organising the event to carry out the appropriate Disclosure checks.
Contact: [email protected]
Local authority: Argyll and Bute
Languages: English, Scots
Author type: Performance Poet, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
Norman Bissell's headshot

I was born in Glasgow and now live on the Isle of Luing near Oban in Argyll. I graduated with MA Hons in philosophy and history from the University of Glasgow and was a principal teacher of history at Braidhurst High School in Motherwell for 17 years and an EIS Area Officer. In 2010 I was awarded the Fellowship of the Educational Institute of Scotland for signal service to education and in 2014 I received an artist's bursary from Creative Scotland to research and write Barnhill a novel about George Orwell's final years, published by Luath Press in June 2019. My poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky: A Journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing, with photographs by Oscar Marzaroli, is also published by Luath Press.

Since 2002 I have been Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics which promotes the creative expression of the Earth, and I edit its journal Stravaig. I have provided poetry workshops to primary pupils and performed my poems with musicians and singers. I have a full disclosure from Disclosure Scotland and can offer talks and workshops on George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four, geopoetics, Kenneth White and haiku walking.

(Photo credit: Birgit Whitmore)

(Works in Scots)

Websites featuring the author

Local authorities will visit

Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; Edinburgh City; Falkirk; Fife; Glasgow City; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian

Events will deliver

Mentoring; Panel event; Performance; Reading; Residency; Talk; Workshop; Professional development, CLPL or CPD; Chairing events

Audience will work with

Adult learners; Outdoor learning

Topics of work

Activism & protest; Ageing; Biography & memoir; Class & society; Coasts, seas & oceans; Death, grief & bereavement; Environment & climate; Event production; Historical fiction; History; Island communities; Loneliness & isolation; Love & romance; Nature; Politics; Publishing & getting published; Rural communities; Self-publishing & independent publishing; Travel writing; Urban communities; World War 1; World War 2

Age groups published for

Children; Teens; Adults

Age groups will work with

6-8; 9-11; 12-14; 15-18; 18+

Audience size

0-10; 11-30; 31-100