'Born Free'
Publisher: Rebel Inc
Price: �6.99
ISBN: 1 84195 048 3
Nominated for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, The Face Book of the year 1999.
"One of the most accomplished and fresh young voices around." - The Times
"Hird has created a debut novel of malevolent, claustrophobic brilliance." - The Big Issue
"Born Free is a wonderfully bleak and often hilarious novel about family life. Maybe west Edinburgh has found its Dostoevski." The Crack
"Laura Hird's first novel sizzles with brio, gusto, disgust and many other vital signs. . .The situations and dark humour might recall the work of Mike Leigh, but Laura Hird's writing, which is reminiscent of Irvine Welsh (for style) and Iain Banks (for pace), also has the tenderness of James Kelman's early work." The Times Literary Supplement
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To read Carol Birch's Guardian review of 'Born Free,' click here
'Nail & Other Stories'
Publisher: Rebel Inc
Price: �6.99
ISBN: 0 86241 850 X
"Confirms the flowering of a wonderfully evocative imagination on the literary horizon. . .The Keynotes here are wit and energy: sharp and steady - right on the nail." Independent On Sunday
"Roars like a lion on the printed page." - iD Magazine
"Tied together with cutting insights and sharp style, making Nail bite, scratch and chew. Librarians should file with care." The Face
��In this dark and disturbing collection of short stories, Laura Hird takes her readers on a roller-coaster ride into the heads of the ordinary, fucked-up citizens of normality as they go about their daily business.
A twelve year old boy uses the Edinburgh buses to escape from his dysfunctional mother and her boyfriend; a mismatched suburban couple try wife-swapping to inject adventure into a flagging relationship; a retarded youth tries to join a female gang; a dead lesbian lover can�t let go; a British soldier loses the plot; a former tenant dreams up revenge on a heartless landlord. These are remarkable stories by any standard, told with a chilling detachment that fails to mask their underlying humanity.
Nail is an extraordinary debut; gritty, surreal and morbidly funny with Hird constantly turning over seemingly innocuous looking stones to see what lurks beneath.�
�A dazzling new writer� - The Bookseller
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To study 'Nail and Other Stories' and other Scottish writing and Culture at the Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina, click here
Novella, 'The Dilating Pupil' in 'Children Of Albion Rovers'
Publisher: Rebel Inc
Price: �5.99
ISBN: 0 86241 731 7
�Children of Albion Rovers is the best-selling and critically acclaimed collection of novellas that features six of the most exciting young writers to emerge from Scotland in the 90�s: award-winning authors Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge and James Meek and introducing the striking new talents of Laura Hird and Paul Reekie.
Children of Albion Rovers is a world of tripped-out crematorium attendants (Alan Warner), vengeful traffic wardens (James Meek), born-again vinyl junkies (Gordon Legge) and teenage girls who sexually humiliate their teachers (Laura Hird). Also included at Paul Reekie�s fictional account of ideals betrayed and Irvine Welsh�s first ever sci-fi story, featuring alien space casuals wreaking havoc throughout the known universe. The resulting mix is intoxicating to say the least.�
�Mixing the sublime with the irreverent, Children of Albion Rovers takes a sledgehammer to convention� - New Statesman
�A fistful of Caledonian classics� - Loaded
�It is billed as a �frenetic breakbeat of Scottish social surrealism and urban mythology� but is better than that� - Literary Review
�Like a burst of foul air but bursting with energy and excitement� - Scotland on Sunday
Read 'The Dilating Pupil'
To view images from the launch night of 'Children of Albion Rovers' which took place at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh on December 30th 1996, click here
Novella 'Hope' in 'Rovers Return'
Publisher: Rebel Inc
Price: �8.99
ISBN: 0 86241 803 8
�Rovers Return features pint-sized offerings from as far afield as the Siberia Bar, New York, the Dubliner�s Bar, Stockholm and the Tynecastle Arms, Edinburgh. Six intoxicating offerings from some of the best young writers around.
Laura Hird, Gordon Legge and James Meek were all featured in the original anthology and return here with three more glorious tales of fag hags, sports presenters and dead fishermen. Sidling up to them at the bar are Anthony Bourdain with his frenetic account of a chef�s crazy night out in New York City; best-selling author of The Football Factory, John King�s story of claustrophobic incarceration in a Greek prison and Emer Martin�s bizarre odyssey of love, weird sex and revenge. A truly international cocktail.�
�Pacy, punchy, state of the era� - I-d Magazine
�Compelling and lurid�truly hallucinogenic� - The Scotsman
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'The Initiation'
Short story published in Hanging Loose Press anthology - "Word Jig: New Fiction from Scotland" - edited by Marie Carter. (Mar 03). For more information on Hanging Loose Press website, click image.
A collection of fresh new Scottish prose edited by Marie Carter. Contributors include: Michel Faber, Ali Smith, Andrew Greig, Suhayl Saadi, Linda Henderson, Anne Donovan, etc.
To purchase the anthology on Amazon, click here
'The Happening'
Short story published in Serpent's Tail anthology - "Strictly Casual" - edited by Amy Prior. (Feb 03). More information at www.serpentstail.com
UK and US writers explore love in the new millennium.
Contributors include: Julia Bell, Brett Ellen Block, Lucy Corin, Barbara Gowdy, Caren Gussoff, Elizabeth Graver, Bonnie Greer, AM Homes, Tina Jackson, Bridget O'Connor etc.
Read extract from my story, 'The Happening' here
Read extract from all the stories on editor, Amy Prior's website here
'This is My Story, This is My Song'
Short story in Freight Design's anthology of Scottish football fiction, 'The Hope That Kills
Us.'
Available from: Freight Design, 49-53 Virginia Street, Glasgow, G1 1TS, and from good Glasgow bookshops.
Further details from [email protected] Includes stories by Alan Spence, Gordon Legge, Linda Cracknell, Des Dillon and Alan Bissett, alongside photographs from Paul Thorburn's excellent
photo essay on Scottish Football and a foreword from Stuart Cosgrove. Possible forthcoming exhibition/events at Hampden with the Scottish
Football Museum and Arts & Business.
Winner of Museum Trading Association
Best UK Publication 2003
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To read Alan Pattullo's hilarious review of the book on The Scotstman website, click here
'Meat'
Short story in 'The Literary Review, Vol 45, No 2 (A Change of
Face -
Contemporary Scottish Writing.)' Delighted to hear that the story has
been awarded The Charles Angoff Prize.
Other work included by John Burnside, Douglas Dunn, Janice Galloway,
Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, A L Kennedy, Edwin Morgan etc.
Copies available from: The Literary Review, Fairleigh Dickinson
University,
285 Madison Avenue, Madison, New Jersey 07940, USA or
The Literary Review
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Translations
* 1998 - Novella (Italian Translation by Pierluigi Cerri) - �Pupilla in Dilatazione� (Einaudi Tascabili)
Read publishers, Einaudi's comments on the anthology - here
* 1999 - Short Story Collection (Italian Translation by Norman Gobetti) - �Unghia� (Einaudi Tascabili)
* June 2001 - Novel (German Translation by Irma Schick) - Born Free - (Eichborn)
Read Titel Magazine review - here
Read Werner Jung's review on the Lyrikwelt site - here
Read Perlentaucher review - here
* May 2001 - Novel (Dutch translation by Annelies Konijnenbelt) - Born Free - (De Bezige Bij)
* 2002 - Short Story Collection (French Translation by Alain Defosse) �L�Ongle� (La Serpent a� Plumes - Collection Desordres)
Article on L'Alsace Les Pays website - here
Read R�dacteurs et LeLibraire.com review - here
Read Le Matricule des Anges review - here
* February 2002 - Novel (Spanish Translation by Alejandro Palomas) �Como en Familia� (Ediciones Siruela)
* October 2002 - Novel (Polish Translation by 'Malgorzata Karkowska) - Born Free "wrzuc na luz" (Bertelsmann)
* October 2002 - 'Vapaana syntynyt' - (Finnish Translation of 'Born Free') - (Sammakko)
Read publishers, Sammakko's comments on the book - here
Read Killtomato website review - here
* February 2003 - 'Nagel Stories' - (German translation of 'Nail and Other Stories' - (Eichborn)
Read Anne Kathrin Hahn's German review on Satt.org site - here
Read Perlentaucher review - here
Read Titel Magazine review - here
* 25 August 2003 - Novel (French Translation by Alain Defosse) - 'Les Lois de 'h�r�dit�' (La Serpent a' Plumes - Collection Desordres)
Read Jowebzine review - here
* November 2003 - Novel (Danish Translation by Ninna Bren�e - 'Born Free') - 'F�dt fri' (Tiderne Skifter)
Read Tiderne Skifter details of the translation - here
Short stories also published in anthologies including �New Scottish Writing� (Flamingo), "Typical Girls" (Sceptre), �Damage Land� (Polygon).
Stories and articles published in: The Face, The Big Issue, Guardian, Scotland on Sunday, Billy Liar, Verbal, Cencrastus, Chapman, Grand Street (USA), Front and Centre (Canada), Blvd (Netherlands), Bang (Sweden), Barcelona Review, Story (USA)...
