FRESH from her triumph with the poetry collection Quines, Gerda Stevenson’s latest book, Letting Go, is a collection of short stories being published by Luath Press today.

Known for her stage, television and film work including her role in Braveheart, Stevenson has enjoyed increasing success with her writing with her 2018 book Quines: Poems In Tribute To The Women Of Scotland now in its second edition.

The new book by the prominent independence supporter will be launched at Biggar Library tonight from 7.30pm where Stevenson will be reading from it in conversation with the well known actor, Michael MacKenzie. There are tickets remaining for the event.

Publishers Luath stated: “The 12 stories in Letting Go take us on a journey through landscape, language and turbulent times, from the mid-19th century to the present day, and into the future, the stories interrogating what it really means to be ‘Scottish’ through a network of often overlooked voices.

“A multi-lingual cacophony of speech, poetry and song, Stevenson fills her Scotland not just with English, Scots and Gaelic, but also with Italian, Afrikaans, and Polish.

“Stevenson’s array of characters from many walks of life and nationalities – including a traveller, a wood carver, chicken farm workers, a nurse, an architect and a magician – meet and part, some becoming reacquainted.

“Themes exploring identity, creativity and the environment, echo and connect throughout the different narratives, sometimes carried in snatches of song.

“The author leads us outward from her native Scottish Borders to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Gàidhealtachd, south to England, across the Atlantic to Apartheid South Africa and, finally, to the melting Arctic.”

Gerda Stevenson told The National: “More than half of the stories are based on my own life – for example, I did sit on Paul Robeson’s knee as a wee girl, and our family lived in South Africa for two years under the horrendous apartheid regime.”

Stevenson’s poetry collections, If This Were Real (Smokestack Books, 2013), and Quines: Poems In Tribute To Women Of Scotland (Luath Press, 1st edition 2018, 2nd edition 2020) have been published in Italian translations.

She wrote the biographical introduction and a series of poems for the book Inside & Out: The Art of Christian Small (Scotland Street Press, 2019) and she collaborated with Scottish landscape photographer Allan Wright on their 2019 book Edinburgh, for which she wrote the introduction and a sequence of 22 poems.

As an actor and director, Stevenson won a Bafta Best Film Actress award for her role in Margaret Tait’s feature film Blue Black Permanent, and she is the founder of Stellar Quines, Scotland’s leading women’s theatre company.

Luath Press added: “We may begin in Scotland, but – ranging from South Africa to the Arctic and from the 19th century to an apocalyptic future – it is clear that no nation is ever really an island.

“Nor does Letting Go shy away from depicting the experiences of those among us who are often overlooked and marginalised.

“Painting the everyday lives of people with disabilities, the assorted blessings and curses of femininity and the repercussions of class and poverty, Stevenson uses a collection of voices to reflect the real community she knows so well.

Writer Alan Spence praised the new book, calling Letting Go “a wonderful collection, the stories strong, the writing pitch perfect”.

“Full of warmth and humour, gloriously affirmative, achingly bittersweet.”