Zoë Strachan

Strachan grew up in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.[1] She studied Archaeology and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and earned a MPhil in Creative Writing at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.[2] She later herself became a Creative Writing tutor at the University of Glasgow.[3] Strachan lives in Glasgow with her partner, the novelist Louise Welsh.[4][5]

Strachan's work has been published in New Writing 15, Bordercrossing Berlin, The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, and The Antigonish Review.[1] In 2006 she was named the first Writer-in-Residence at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.[6] Her first novel, Negative Space, was published in 2002 by Picador.[7] It won the Betty Trask Award in 2003 and was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award.[1] Her second novel, in 2004, was Spin Cycle. In 2008 Strachan was awarded the Hermann Kesten Stipendium fellowship.[3] In June 2009, she was working on her third novel, Play Dead.[7] In 2014, she appeared as editor of an anthology of LGBT writing called Out There, published by Freight Books.[8]

In 2011, Strachan took part in the International Writing Program Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.[9]

She and Louise Welsh contributed a short story entitled "Anyone Who Had a Heart" to Glasgow Women's Library's 21 Revolutions Project, under which 21 writers and 21 artists were commissioned to create works for the 21st anniversary of Glasgow Women's Library.[10]

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