Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013)
„Parallel Worlds” – an exhibition of Iain Banks’s foreign editions from the Iain Banks Archive (The University of Stirling, Scotland, UK)
The University of Stirling Archives is delighted to announce a new exhibition presenting a selection of foreign editions of Iain Banks’ novels from his personal collection. The exhibition highlights the international appeal of Banks’ fiction and shows the variety of ways his work was presented in different countries around the world. The volumes on display are part of a larger collection of almost 200 editions of Banks’ work translated into a range of languages and designed to reflect the tastes of readers in a range of markets including France, Germany, Israel, Russia and South Korea.
Iain Banks graduated from the University of Stirling in 1975 with a degree in English and Philosophy, and was later awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University in 1997.
The exhibition also features a book sculpture commemorating Iain Banks which was presented to the University by the Edinburgh International Book Festival last September.
The sculpture is part of a set produced by an anonymous artist celebrating literature and the love of words. It represents Banks’ 1992 novel “The Crow Road” and is accompanied by a tribute to the writer from author Ian Rankin.
The exhibition is on display in the Archives & Special Collections area of the University Library and runs until Friday 4th April.
Iain Banks was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed Scottish novelists of his generation, and an alumnus of the University of Stirling. The University is delighted to be working with his estate to collect and preserve an archive of his working papers and make this material available to researchers with an interest in his work.
Interviewed by the University for an alumni profile Banks reflected on his time at Stirling:
“I did get in a lot of writing… as well as a fair amount of walking in the hills. What I remember most keenly is the wonderful feeling of freedom of being there, and the sheer intoxication of living and working in a place devoted to learning, to the pursuit of knowledge. I still smile when I think of the place, the time, and my years at Stirling were some of the happiest and most productive of my life. All that, plus I got to be an extra in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, How cool was that ?”
Some examples of Banks’ student writing can be found amongst the University’s own archives in the pages of the creative writing journal Cairn. Launched in Spring 1973 Cairn featured poetry and prose written by students and staff of the University, including the poet Norman McCaig. The journal is one of several student titles which are held in the University Archives along with a full run of the student newspaper Brig, which was first published in 1969.
http://www.stir.ac.uk/events/calendarofevents/exhibitionparallelworlds/
http://archives.wordpress.stir.ac.uk/2014/01/29/parallel-worlds-an-exhibition-of-material-from-the-iain-banks-archive/
http://efanzines.com/Banksoniain/Banksoniain20.pdf
„A Celebration of the Life & Works of Iain Banks”, University of Huddersfield (West Yorkshire, England, UK), 15th of March 2014
There will be a special Celebration of the Life and Works of Iain Banks at Huddersfield Literature Festival (University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, UK) on Saturday 15th March 2014, between 14:00 and 19:00.
The Festival Director Michelle Hodgson will be talking about going on tour with Iain Banks. Gary Lloyd will be talking about his musical collaborations with Iain including Espedair Street. Ken MacLeod will be talking about his school-friend and their influence on each other’s work. David Haddock, editor of The Banksoniain fanzine, will be talking about “The Wasp Factory”. There will also be a panel talking about Iain’s science fiction work including Ken MacLeod, David Barnett and John Jarrold (who used to edit Iain’s SF).The Huddersfield Literature Festival runs from 6-16 March 2014.
A series of talks to commemorate the life and work of Iain (M) Banks, one of the finest novelists of his generation. The author of titles including “The Wasp Factory”, “The Bridge”, “The Crow Road” and, as Iain M. Banks, “The Player of Games”, “Use of Weapons” and “Excession”, Banks sadly passed away in 2013.
2-2.10pm : Introduction by Festival Director Michelle Hodgson
2.10-3pm : „The Wasp Factory” – Iain Banks’s breakthrough
Banks wrote a million words and six novels before the publication of “The Wasp Factory” in 1984. David Haddock, editor of The Banksonian fanzine, discusses those early works, as well as Banks’s breakthrough novel and its cover art from around the world.
3-3.30pm : Conversation & curries – Michelle Hodgson shares anecdotes from 10 years’ of publicity tours with Banks. Includes a 10-minute publicity film from 1993, made by George Cairns.
4-5pm : Espedair Street: A tribute to a band that never existed
Composer and producer Gary Lloyd talks about his musical collaborations with Iain Banks, focusing in particular on their tribute to the band Frozen Gold from Banks’s novel “Espedair Street”. Features extracts of recordings from this and other projects, including a narrative/music adaptation of The Bridge.
5.30-6pm : Songs of Stone: Iain Banks as a poet
Iain Banks wrote many poems, some of which appear in his novels. His long-time friend and fellow SF author Ken MacLeod reads from and discusses the collection that Banks wanted to see in print.
6-7pm : The Culture & other stories – Ken MacLeod is joined by agent John Jarrold (Banks’s former SF publisher) and journalist and steam punk novelist David Barnett to discuss Banks’s contribution to SF.
