Gregory Burke
Gregory Burke is originally from Rosyth near Dunfermline. Burke’s first play was Gagarin Way, set in the factories of West Fife. Black Watch, for the national Theatre of Scotland, debuted at in 2006 and met with critical acclaim. It has since been performed throughout Scotland and has toured in London, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Other works include Occy Eyes, The Straits, Unsecured, On Tour, Liar, Shellshocked and Hoors. More recently, Burke wrote the screenplay for the film 71, about a
Jennie Erdal is the author of Ghosting, a memoir of her childhood in Lochgelly and of being the long-serving ghostwriter of Naim Atallah, the publisher and owner of Quartet Books. She worked for him for 20 years, first as a translator of Russian novels, then as a commissioning editor and finally as unacknowledged ghostwriter. Ghosting was chosen as a BBC Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Saltire Scoiety First Book Award and for the JR Ackerley
Joe Corrie was born in 1894 in Slamannan near Falkirk. A few years later his family moved to Cardenden in Fife. He left school at 14 in 1908 to work in the local pits and during the First World War he worked at a colliery in Ayrshire. On his return to Cardenden in 1918 he began writing verse and it wasn’t until the twenties that he began working on plays.
Former headteacher Christina Banach is from Lochgelly. Her debut novel Minty is published by Three Hares Publishing, based in London. Fife features heavily in her book, in particular Ruby Bay in Elie. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Society of Authors, Christina is working on her next book – a contemporary ghost story-come-psychological thriller, set mainly in Glencoe. www.christinabanach.com
Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America’s celebrated Edgar Award for ‘Resurrection Men’. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix
