Kirsty Logan: author of ‘quirky, vivid, lush, wild and magical' fairytales

• Claire Sawers
• 14 August 2014

This article is from 2014

Chris Scott

The Scottish author and former List books editor is set to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

What a difference a year makes. Last year, Kirsty Logan was living in Glasgow, publishing the occasional short story and poem online and in literary magazines, and she’d just been appointed books editor at The List. Fast forward 12 months and a bit, and she’s had to step down from List duties as her literary career has taken off. Appearances at spoken word events, creative writing mentoring and writing commissions have snowballed.

As well as notching up rave reviews for her debut book The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales, written in the style of a lustier, gothier Amélie, she’s preparing book two, The Gracekeepers, which will be out in spring 2015. She’ll also be appearing at the Book Festival alongside Somerset Maugham Award-winner Sara Maitland – and she just got engaged to her partner Annie.

While everything in Logan’s garden is looking rosy (that also happens to be the name of Annie and Kirsty’s dog), her fictional world is an altogether stranger place. Lightbulb eaters, coin-operated children and lovers with clockwork hearts inhabit the pages of her grown-up fairytales, which Logan sums up as ‘quirky, vivid, lush, wild and magical.’

Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 21 Aug, 2pm, £7 (£5).