LGBT History Month: Scotland’s Queer Authors

Let’s celebrate 10 Scottish or Scotland-based queer authors

The lives and contributions of queer people are often overlooked, as history is typically “straightwashed” – viewed through a heteronormative lens. When our lives are documented, they are often reduced to sad statistics or arrest records. But what are the real lives of queer people like? Find out more through the works of queer authors in Scotland.

Queer authors, both past and present, offer us an insight into the struggles, joys, and general lives of LGBTQ+ people throughout history, helping to paint a fuller picture. This representation is crucial not only because it reflects on how far we have come, but also because it highlights how much we still have left to do.

The struggle is far from over. By exploring our past, we can recognise patterns that are still relevant today. A strikingly similar queerphobic rhetoric used to justify Section 28 is now being employed in discussions about trans issues. So-called conversion practices, which aim to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, are still legal in Scotland today. The Scottish Government’s 2018 National LGBT Survey found that 7% of respondents had either undergone or been offered ‘conversion therapy’ in Scotland, rising to 10% for trans respondents. We must not become complacent. Instead, we must use our voices to stand up for the most marginalised in our society.

With this in mind, let’s celebrate some well-known and lesser-known Scottish or Scotland-based queer authors this LGBT History Month! As a volunteer at Lavender Menace Queer Book Archives, I thought it would be fitting to explore their newly launched digital catalogue to research authors. And where better to start than with a nod to one of the organisation’s incredible founders?

Sigrid Nielsen

Nielsen grew up in America before settling in Scotland. She teamed up with Bob Orr to open Lavender Menace in Edinburgh (August 1982) – Scotland’s first Lesbian and Gay Bookshop. In 1987, Lavender Menace changed its name to West & Wilde Bookshop and moved to Dundas Street, where it would operate until 1997. After a gap of around 20 years, Bob and Sigrid founded Lavender Menace Returns, an LGBTQIA+ archive and events space, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In 1987, Sigrid co-edited In Other Words Writing as a Feminist with Gail Chester, which highlights the importance of writing for women’s liberation. Sigrid also contributed to the LGBTQ+ newspaper The Pink Paper, including a column entitled Fortune, Fame and the Feminist (1988).

Ellen Galford

Galford was born in America and moved to the UK in 1971. She has written four lesbian novels: Moll Cutpurse, Her True History (1984), The Fires of Bride (1986), Queendom Come (1990), and The Dyke and the Dybbuk (1993). She has lived in Glasgow and London but has since settled in Edinburgh with her partner. Ellen won the 1994 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian and Gay Humor and was a finalist for the 1995 American Library Association Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Award for Literature. Recently, Ellen led a discussion group called Lesbian Words at Lavender Menace, designed to celebrate lesbian writing in a welcoming space. The sessions are now running monthly – find out more here.

Jo Clifford

Clifford is a playwright and performer born in Stoke-On-Trent in the early 1950s. After moving to Scotland at 17, she later raised a family there. It was only then that she could act on her lifelong struggle, as she was born and raised as a boy, though she knew it didn’t fit her. She describes the shame and distress she felt as a trans person, as there was no language to understand or describe it in the 1950s. It was through being cast in women’s roles in school plays that Clifford discovered her love for theatre, as well as how much she enjoyed “dressing as a girl.” She spent 20 years trying to be a novelist, and it wasn’t until 1985 that she found her voice as a playwright. Lavender Menace Archive holds copies of her plays Eve (2017) and Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven (2019), the latter reimagining biblical stories with a transgender Jesus.

Jenni Fagan

Fagan is a bisexual author born and raised in Scotland, within the Scottish Local Authority Care system. She moved 26 times as a child, and after leaving the system, she was homeless for several years. Fagan’s novel The Panopticon (2012) explores the life of a young girl trapped by the care and criminal justice system in the UK. Her novel The Sunlight Pilgrims (2016) is set in a Scottish caravan park during an extraordinary winter, offering a “vivid and tender” coming-of-age trans tale set at the end of the world. The New York Times described Fagan as the “Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins.”

Anbara Salam

Salam, half-Palestinian and half-Scottish, grew up in London. She is the author of Things Bright and Beautiful, Belladonna, and Hazardous Spirits. She also contributed to This Arab Is Queer, an anthology featuring 18 queer Arab writers who explore the challenges of being LGBTQ+ and Arab. Salam has spoken about how her love for dance and writing are intertwined. She explains that her dance training helped her embrace vulnerability and push beyond her comfort zone, which she then applied to her writing. Salam also discussed how her PhD research on Christian and Islamic mystical religious experiences has shaped her work, noting the self-destructive qualities that can mirror intense romantic love.

Etzali Hernandez

Hernandez is a non-binary Latinx queer femme poet, coder, and DJ. Their first poetry pamphlet, from murky waters, we rise, was published by Forest Publications in 2022. Their work has appeared in Ascend Magazine, Poetry and Settled Status for All, We Were Always Here: A Queer Words Anthology, and Ceremony. Hernandez has performed as a DJ at CounterFlows Festival (2019), Free Pride (2016-2018), and in various fundraisers for migrant solidarity groups. They are also a resident DJ for Taking Up Space, a queer variety night featuring poetry, stand-up comedy, and experimental performance art.

Gray Crosbie

Crosbie is a queer non-binary writer and spoken word artist based in Glasgow. Their work explores queer issues, mental health, and relationships. They have performed at poetry and cabaret nights throughout Scotland and their written work has been widely published. The Lavender Menace archive holds their collection of queer short stories, Love, Pan-Fried (2019), which delve into themes of shapeshifting, love, loss, and body image. Crosbie also writes poetry about their trans experiences, emphasising the importance of visibility for trans people.

Ever Dundas

Dundas is a queer and disabled writer living in Edinburgh. Her work spans literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with a focus on disability justice. She explains that queer theory and defamiliarisation – making the ordinary new and strange – inform her writing. Dundas’ first book, Goblin, was inspired by her MA in Creative Writing, and it gave her the confidence to write her second novel, Hellsans. Dundas has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and was later diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (FMS), which causes chronic pain. She also co-founded Inklusion with writer Julie Farrell in 2021, a guide to making literary events accessible to disabled people. Dundas continues to campaign for organisations that support disabled writers.

Ian Macartney

Macartney is a poet, musician, and performance artist born in West Lothian. He began his literary career in high school and became a prominent figure in Aberdeen’s grassroots spoken word scene, founding avant-garde collective Re-Analogue. He recently launched his debut sci-fi story collection, The Infinite Fury and other stories, which blends post-internet mythmaking, Celtic surrealism, and gay techno-hauntings. Described as “one of the most luminous rising voices in the Scottish Poetry Scene”, Macartney has performed with Neu! Reekie and on BBC Radio Scotland. He is currently based in Aberdeen.

Lola Keeley

Keeley, suggested by Edinburgh Lighthouse Radical Bookshop, moved to London to pursue theatre and later became a train driver on the London Underground. She now lives in Edinburgh with her wife and four cats, writing gay and lesbian romance novels. Her recent works include Her Royal Happiness and Presidential. Keeley often reflects on how living in Edinburgh influences her writing, with the city’s rich history serving as inspiration, especially its gothic atmosphere which perfectly suits a sapphic romance novel.

The preservation of queer history through literature is vital. At Lavender Menace, you can find rare and out-of-print queer texts that might otherwise be lost. This LGBT History Month, why not explore one of the authors featured above? Check out their work in the Lavender Menace digital catalogue or visit the archive to learn more. For more information about when to visit, check their website or social media.