About

I’m Kirstin and I write.

I live in a cottage in a village by a loch, with my partner and a squawking pile of small boys.

I also do a lot of performance, at spoken word nights and festivals. I founded, programmed and presented the literary cabaret night Words Per Minute, which ran from 2010-14. Basically,  I’m not shy in front of a microphone.

I work as a journalist and freelance arts PR when I’m not writing, and there are pages with a bit more info about those things on this site. I’ve written for The List, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Independent, and The Pool, and worked for a number of excellent organisations.

My second novel, Scabby Queen, will be published by 4th Estate in April 2020. My first novel, Fishnet, won The Guardian’s Not The Booker prize in 2015 and is published by Black & White in the UK and Scout Press in the US and Canada. I won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2008, and the Allen Wright Award for Excellence in Arts Journalism in 2007 and 2011. I was nominated for the PPA Feature Writer of the Year Award in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Didn’t ever win it, though.