Scottish Black Writers Group is a free writers group facilitated by our Co-Director Dean Atta and in association with Scottish PEN. It is a monthly event open to writers across the UK and Ireland who are Black/from the African diaspora, including people of mixed heritage.
Scottish Black Writers Group is a space to meet, chat, network and talk about the writing life – writers both published and unpublished are welcome to join.
About Alex Wheatle
Born in London to Jamaican parents on the 3rd January, 1963 , Alex spent most of his childhood in social services care. A huge fan of reggae, in his mid-teens Alex was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system where he wrote lyrics for performances in community halls, youth clubs and blues dances in South London. His first novel, Brixton Rock, was published to critical acclaim by BlackAmber Books in 1999. Alex has won the London Arts Board Writers Prize in 2000 and has made multiple books published subsequently, including East of Acre Lane, The Seven Sisters/Home Boys, Island Songs , Checkers, co-written with Mark Parham in 2006 and The Dirty South. Alex was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008 . Alex’s first young adult novel, Liccle Bit was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2015. Crongton Knights, the follow-up novel to Liccle Bit won the Guardian’s Children’s fiction award for 2016 and the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award. Brenton Brown, the sequel to Brixton Rock, was published by Arcadia in 2011 . Alex wrote and performed his own one man show, Uprising in 2011. Shame & Scandal, Alex’s debut play, played to sold out audiences at the Albany Theatre, Deptford in October, 2015. Alex’s latest work, Cane Warriors was published in October, 2020.
Please be mindful when booking. The Scottish Black Writers Group is for writers based across the UK and Ireland who are Black/from the African diaspora, including people of mixed heritage.