John Glenday

John Glenday was born in Broughty Ferry in 1952 and brought up in Monifieth. He attended the University of Edinburgh, where he studied literature and language but dropped out after two years to work as a van driver, before transferring to a psychiatric nursing course. He subsequently worked as a psychiatric nurse and as an addictions counsellor. He now lives in Angus and writes full-time.

He has extensive experience of giving public readings and workshops and has a particular interest in working with disadvantaged, marginalised and mental health groups. He currently runs weekly writing workshops for the Art Angel mental health charity in Dundee.

John’s first collection, The Apple Ghost (Picador, 1989), won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. In 1990-91, he was appointed the Scottish/Canadian Exchange Fellow and was based at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. His second collection, Undark (Picador,1995), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Grain (Picador,  2009) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and the Griffin International Prize. The Golden Mean (Picador, 2015) won the 2015 Roehampton Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Poetry Prize the same year. Selected Poems (Picador) was published in 2020.

John has published two pamphlets: ‘Mira’ with the artist and poet Maria Isakova Bennett (Coast to Coast to Coast 2019) and ‘The Firth’ (Mariscat Press 2020).