Michael Pedersen presents Good Grief!

Come bask in the company of your favourite ghosts at the Good Grief! Salon – where the grief comes glittered, gritty and gutsy. We have all lost something over ‘The Big Still’, this last weird epoch of living, be it: time, trips, tips, friends, cash, kudos, lovers, or freaky opportunities we’re not yet ready to utter. What better reason to get together than to celebrate the love in the things we’re missing? Let’s light a fuse for the jive of healing, let words be our beacons, beamed into the night. For one night only, prize-winning Edinburgh writer and Neu! Reekie! co-founder, Michael Pedersen presents some of his favourite voices from across literature and the arts. Celebrating with him is an all-star cast of writers and musicians: E A Hanks, Gemma Cairney, Rachel Sermanni, Hollie McNish, and Michael Mullen, who delivers a lustre-loaded salon-style waltz of poetry, prose and music, lighting a spark to make our way through the dark.

This event was filmed live at the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival and all the authors and participants appeared on stage, in the venue.

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Benjamin Labatut & Adrian Nathan West with Jay G Ying Benjamin Labatut & Adrian Nathan West with Jay G Ying Anyone who studied physics at school might remember the mysterious way in which light is said to hover somewhere between wave and particle. In a similar way, according to Philip Pullman, the thrilling new work by Benjamin Labatut hovers somewhere between… Karen Campbell and Simon Lelic (2010 event) Karen Campbell and Simon Lelic (2010 event) Two of Britain's leading young writers stretch the boundaries of crime fiction… Fernanda Melchor: Think Twice Fernanda Melchor: Think Twice While Fernanda Melchor was completing her International Booker Prize shortlisted Hurricane Season, she came across the story of a town whose residents were removed from their land so that a luxury gated community could be built. The idea that violence… Jenny Erpenbeck: Freedom Came at a Price Jenny Erpenbeck: Freedom Came at a Price How does it feel to have been born and raised in East Germany and then, at the end of childhood, thrown into a radically new way of living when the Berlin Wall came down? Jenny Erpenbeck knows the answer. Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading her… Katie Kitamura: Familiarity and Contempt Katie Kitamura: Familiarity and Contempt Regarded as a master of cool disquiet, a novelist of enchanting imagination and minimalist prose, Katie Kitamura has grown into one of America’s most respected authors. She’s also a favourite with other writers: her new novel Intimacies isn’t published… Rodge Glass, Jen Hadfield and Eleanor Thom (2010 event) Rodge Glass, Jen Hadfield and Eleanor Thom (2010 event) Three leading authors, who are all part of the writing project Elsewhere commissioned by the Book Festival, discuss what it felt like to be asked to take part… David Crystal (2015 Event) David Crystal (2015 Event) A linguist and an expert on the development of the English language, David Crystal presents two books that tell us a great deal about English as it is spoken in the 21st century. You Say Potato looks at accents and our different ideas about ‘correct&… Writers Network Showcase: Scotland's Heritage, Then and Now Writers Network Showcase: Scotland's Heritage, Then and Now 'The report that only the poets can make' wrote James Baldwin in 1962. In 2020’s global climate, what might a report by Scottish writers look like? How can poetry speak back to Scotland’s literary heritage and complex relationships with nature… Éric Vuillard & Mark Polizzotti with Amelia Gentleman Éric Vuillard & Mark Polizzotti with Amelia Gentleman Writer and film-maker Éric Vuillard was catapulted to fame in his native France when he won the Prix Goncourt in 2017 for his novel The Order of the Day, set in Austria in the lead-up to the Second World War. This also began the working relationship… Kathryn Briggs: Art and Resistance Kathryn Briggs: Art and Resistance Kathryn Briggs is an internationally recognised, award-winning graphic novelist, zine creator, arts educator and independent publisher. Her short comics have been featured in anthologies including Treehouse Comic, Dirty Rotten Comics, Meanwhile…, and…