Author Event with Elizabeth Reeder and Gillian Shirreffs

Author Event with Elizabeth Reeder and Gillian Shirreffs

Organised by Glasgow Libraries

7th May 2024, 11.00am-1.30pm

Mitchell Library, 201 North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN

This event is open to the public.

Demystifying Death Week is about giving people knowledge, skills and opportunities to plan and support each other through death, dying, loss and care. Join us for our Demystifying Death Week event with writers Elizabeth Reeder (microbursts & An Archive of Happiness) and Gillian Shirreffs (Brodie) as they share their work and talk about the highs and lows of writing about difficult topics like illness, dying, death and grief.

Elizabeth Reeder is author of microbursts (Prototype), a hybrid work about the illnesses and deaths of her parents, which is a design collaboration with Amanda Thomson. Her third novel, An Archive of Happiness (Penned in the Margins), takes place in the Scottish Highlands and explores the unsentimental work of love in a family. She is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at University of Glasgow.

Gillian Shirreffs is author of Brodie (Into Books), a novel about six women whose lives intertwine over three decades, told by Brodie, the beloved object that connects them. Her fiction explores the world of illness, mainly the lived experience of multiple sclerosis. Gillian’s narrative nonfiction interrogates medical objects, places and spaces. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, this new illness experience is reflected in her recent writing.

We’ll be joined by a wide range of support services after the talk, including Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries, Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, Marie Curie, Lifelink, Richmond’s Hope and Age Scotland.

Explore the Glasgow Life Libraries reading list on death, dying and bereavement for thoughts and ideas on how to help when someone is dying or grieving.

Please contact librarieshealthandwellbeing@glasgowlife.org.uk or 0141 287 2903 with any questions.

For more details, see here.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Glasgow Life