Douglas Stuart in conversation with Helen Mort at Central Library
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Following on from his debut event in Manchester last spring, Manchester Literature Festival welcomes back bestselling author Douglas Stuart for an intimate evening at Central Library, in conversation with Helen Mort.
Douglas Stuart will be discussing his literary and cultural influences, from his favourite working-class and Scottish writers to the LGBTQ+ artists who have inspired and influenced him. He’ll also share the challenges of adapting his Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain into an eight-part television drama for the BBC.
Described as “one of the boldest writers of his generation”, Douglas Stuart was born and raised in working-class Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York, where he began a career in textiles and fashion design. He spent a decade writing his debut novel while balancing the demands of his day job. Shuggie Bain was finally published in 2020 and went on to win both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards alongside the Booker Prize. Douglas’s second novel, Young Mungo, was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim and he is currently working on his third novel.
Douglas Stuart will be discussing his literary and cultural influences, from his favourite working-class and Scottish writers to the LGBTQ+ artists who have inspired and influenced him.
Based in Sheffield, award-winning poet and novelist Helen Mort teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her poetry collections Division Street (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and Costa Poetry Award, and winner of the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize), No Map Could Show Them and The Illustrated Woman (shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2022) are published by Chatto & Windus. She has also published a novel, Black Car Burning, and her non-fiction includes Never Leave The Dog Behind: Our Love Of Dogs And Mountains as well as her latest book A Line Above the Sky, which melds memoir and nature writing. It was one of The Guardian’s Books to Watch 2022, Evening Standard‘s Books to Watch 2022 and The Bookseller’s Editor’s Choice, and Jon McGregor calls it: ‘A wonderful book – exhilarating and taut.’
Manchester Literature Festival will be back with a full programme this October.
