The Association for Scottish Literary Studies (ASLS) is a Scottish educational

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

, founded in 1970 to promote and support the teaching, study and writing of Scottish literature. Its founding members included the Scottish literary scholar Matthew McDiarmid (1914–1996). Originally based at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

, it moved to its current home within the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1996. In November 2015, ASLS was allocated £40,000 by the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

to support its work providing teacher training and classroom resources for schools. ASLS's main field of activity is

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, and the organisation is a member of Publishing Scotland.

Publications

Periodicals

ASLS produces

periodicals Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

, including ''Scottish Literary Review'' (formerly ''Scottish Studies Review''), a

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

ed journal of Scottish literature and

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

; ''Scottish Language'', a peer reviewed journal of Scottish languages and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

; ''The International Journal of Scottish Literature'', a free online peer reviewed journal (2006–2013); and ''The Bottle Imp'', a free online

ezine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the computer ...

(named after the short story by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

). Since June 2013, ''Scottish Literary Review'' has been included in Project MUSE's Premium Collection of journals.

Books

Annual Volumes

Since 1971 ASLS has republished a number of

out of print An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book that is ...

Scottish texts in their ''Annual Volumes'' series (45 volumes by 2016). Titles in the series include reprints of 18th- and 19th-century fiction, anthologies of Scottish drama, editions of poetry and collections of other writings. Two ASLS Annual Volumes have won Saltire Society Research Book of the Year awards: ''The Poems of William Dunbar'', edited by Priscilla Bawcutt (1998), and Sorley MacLean's ''Dàin do Eimhir'', edited by Christopher Whyte (2002).

International Companions to Scottish Literature

In 2015, ASLS launched the ''International Companions to Scottish Literature'' series, co-edited by

Ian Brown Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963) is an English musician. He was the lead singer and the only continuous member of the alternative rock band the Stone Roses from their formation in 1983. Following the band's initial split in 1996, he be ...

and Thomas Owen Clancy. Titles in the series to date include ''The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon'', ''The International Companion to Edwin Morgan'', ''The International Companion to Scottish Poetry'', ''The International Companion to James Macpherson and The Poems of Ossian'', ''The International Companion to John Galt'', ''The International Companion to Scottish Literature 1400–1650'', ''The International Companion to Scottish Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century'', and ''The International Companion to Nineteenth-Century Scottish Literature''.

New Writing Scotland

Since its first issue in 1983, many contemporary Scottish writers have had early work published in ASLS's annual

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of new short fiction and poetry, ''New Writing Scotland'', including Leila Aboulela, Lin Anderson,

Iain Banks Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies (). After the success of '' The Wasp Fact ...

, Polly Clark,

Anne Donovan Anne Theresa Donovan (November 1, 1961 – June 13, 2018) was an American women's basketball player and coach. From 2013 to 2015, she was the head coach of the Connecticut Sun. In her playing career, Donovan won a national championship with Ol ...

, Janice Galloway, Kris Haddow, Jane Harris, Gail Honeyman, Kathleen Jamie, A. L. Kennedy, James Meek, Ian Rankin, James Robertson, Suhayl Saadi, Ali Smith, Chiew-Siah Tei,

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist and short story writer. His 1993 novel ''Trainspotting (novel), Trainspotting'' was made into a Trainspotting (film), film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, ...

, and others. ''New Writing Scotland'' is part-funded by

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( ; ) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the execut ...

Occasional Papers

The ASLS ''Occasional Papers'' series publishes essays and

monographs A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on Scottish literary and linguistic topics, often based on papers presented at ASLS

conferences A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

. The most recent edition in this series, number 25, is entitled ''

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

in Scottish Literature''.

Scotnotes

ASLS publishes the ''Scotnotes'' series of

study guide A study guide can be anything that facilitates learning in a particular topic. It may be a textbook or other resource that fosters comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects. General topics include study and tes ...

s to Scottish writers and their literary works. There are currently thirty-nine titles in this series, on authors ranging from late medieval poets such as William Dunbar and

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots language, Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in th ...

to contemporary writers such as

Liz Lochhead Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE (born 26 December 1947) is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011. ...

and Ian Rankin.

Other titles

In May 2010, in partnership with the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, ASLS published an illustrated edition of Sir Walter Scott's narrative poem '' The Lady of the Lake'', to mark the 200th anniversary of the original publication. In June 2011, with financial support from the Gaelic Books Council, ASLS published a new edition of Sorley MacLean's ''An Cuilithionn/The Cuillin''. In February 2013, ASLS hosted the inaugural Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship, set up by Creative Scotland "to enable a writer to take time out of their usual environment to embark upon a year-long literary adventure to develop their practice". Kirsty Logan was selected to be the first recipient of the Fellowship, and on 10 August 2015 ASLS published her collection of short stories ''A Portable Shelter''. In June 2023, ASLS published two volumes of plays by Michel Tremblay, translated into Scots by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay.

Exhibitions

From 2004 to 2019, ASLS mounted the Scottish Writing Exhibition at the Modern Language Association of America's annual conventions in the United States. In August 2008 the Scottish Writing Exhibition was on display at the biannual European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) conference in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Presidents

A number of literary scholars have held the presidency of the ASLS: *John MacQueen (1970–1973) *Tom Dunn (1973–1976) * Alexander Scott (1976–1979) *

David Daiches David Daiches (2 September 1912 – 15 July 2005) was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture. Early life He was born in Sunde ...

(1979–1984) *Tom Crawford (1984–1989) * Maurice Lindsay (1989–1993) *John Blackburn (1993–1994) *David Robb (1994–1998) * Dorothy McMillan (1998–2002) *Alan MacGillivray (2002–2006) * Alan Riach (2006–2010) *Ian Brown (2010–2015) *Alison Lumsden (2015–2019) *David Goldie (2019–)

Awards

To date, two ASLS Annual Volumes have won Saltire Society Research Book of the Year awards: ''The Poems of William Dunbar'', edited by Priscilla Bawcutt (1998); and Sorley MacLean's ''Dàin do Eimhir'', edited by Christopher Whyte (2002). In 2011, the ASLS's edition of Sorley MacLean's ''An Cuilithionn/The Cuillin'', edited by Christopher Whyte, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year award. Also in 2011, along with

VisitScotland VisitScotland, formerly the Scottish Tourist Board (), is a national tourism organisation for Scotland. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and ...

and the University of Glasgow, the ASLS co-produced ''Literary Scotland: A Traveller's Guide''. In October 2011, this publication won the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Scotland Gold Award for Best Publication. In 2021, the ASLS Annual Volume ''Dràma na Gàidhlig: Ceud Bliadhna air an Àrd-ùrlar / A Century of Gaelic Drama'', edited by Michelle Macleod, won the Gaelic Books Council Donald Meek Award for Best Non-Fiction.

References

External links

Association for Scottish Literary Studies
*
Scottish Writing Exhibition

''The International Journal of Scottish Literature''

''The Bottle Imp'' ezine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association For Scottish Literary Studies Scottish studies Scottish literature Languages of Scotland Charities based in Scotland Organisations based in Glasgow University of Glasgow University of Aberdeen Publishing companies of Scotland Book publishing companies of Scotland Text publication societies 1970 establishments in Scotland Arts organizations established in 1970