The Association for Scottish
Literary Studies

New Writing Scotland 27 – 2009

In the Event of Fire

New Writing Scotland 27

Edited by Alan Bissett and Liz Niven

Published in: Paperback. By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Glasgow, August 2009. Price: £7.95.

ISBN 978-0-948877-92-6

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This year has seen one new editor and one experienced editor share the reins of New Writing Scotland. Reins, it seemed sometimes, which belonged to an impatient horse. New Writing Scotland represents an annual jerk-forwards in the onwards motion of Scottish literature, with all its energy, raw and pulsing and unpublished. Reading through the submissions this year was a frequently exciting experience: those times, it felt good. Other times, being editor was an apologetic throwing of negativity into the world, that understanding of just how many rejections we would have to make.

Let us tell you about The Box. It sits in the corner of the room. The Box! Like a booby-trapped device in a horror movie. Will it spring open today with knives? Or flowers? Each year, New Writing Scotland editors report on the staggering number of entries received, but it’s difficult to visualise just how huge a pile 800 of them is, just how long it takes to read. We make no grumbles: this is the editors’ job and we carry it out with much determination and enthusiasm. After the reading? The monumental task of grading each anonymous submission as Yes, No or Maybe, a little intellectual beauty contest, and coming to a mutual conclusion about 800 different catwalk models, not knowing if we’re giving a new writer their first taste of publication, or rejecting the work of some major literary figure.

Satisfying were those whose opening lines struck a real confident strut. Equally relished, in their own way, were the ones which could be discarded almost immediately. Most frustrating was the large body of Maybes, where talent was clear but we observed technical problems or maybe our Maybe was simply down to subjectivity. These are the manuscripts over which editors can agonise the most. Should we publish, therefore giving a writer who was close-but-not-quite-there encouragement and an audience? Or should we protect the writer from too early exposure, allowing time for further crafting? In the main, we chose the latter option, selecting those which both editors felt had achieved a certain clarity, depth or singularity of voice. These, basically, are the ones which made us most excited, made us think: yes. A double yes. Yes! This writer needs to be read.

Which leads us to our title. We like ‘In the Event of Fire’ for its everydayness (it’s a sign which we read, perhaps literally, on a daily basis) but also for the danger implied. Notice how fire is described as event. Something which erupts from the ordinary. Something which we are cautious about. We responded to writers who abandoned caution, who let the fire become an event, who did not scream, running for the exits, but who let it burn. Now, let it spread.

It’s exit out the Fire Door for one of the current editors, her three-year editorial post being completed. It’s been great reading to find out which voices will set the heather alight each year, and a weather eye will keep watching from a safe distance. Our other editor, however, very much looks forward to The Box next year sitting there in the corner of his room, ticking away with the event of fire.

Alan Bissett
Liz Niven