Kirsten Norrie: An American Book of the Dead

Join critic and author as he chats to author and artist, on Thursday 28th November at 7pm, about her latest, transportive, deeply intelligent and richly unsettling book, .

Set in the mid to late 1800s this unique Acid Western whose psychedelia stems not from drugs but from the spirit world. When spirit photographer, Ebenezer Elijah Henry is confronted by an enigmatic stranger late one night in his Kansas studio, a peculiar tale is summoned through an impromptu séance that culminates in one of the most arresting photographs ever taken. This is the story of Robert McGee: possible scalping survivor, possible fraud, and how his image was invented by an ambitious photographer already imaging Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

Kirsten Norrie is a writer, artist, and musician who publishes poetry under the name MacGillivray. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the TLS, the Scotsman and on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction and the Verb. In 2024-5 she is the Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at the University of Cambridge and was previously an AHRC Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress and a 2019 recipient of a Fondation Jan Michalski writer residency in Switzerland. The MacGillivray archive is held at the Scottish Poetry Library.www.kirstennorrie.com

Stuart Kelly is a Scottish critic and author. He is the literary editor of The Scotsman. His works includeThe Book Of Lost Books: An Incomplete Guide To All The Books You’ll Never Read,Scott-Land: The Man Who Invented A NationandThe Minister and the Murderer.

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Doors: 6.30pm, event starts: 7pm, please arrive early to secure a good seat.

Tickets are £3 and there is a Ticket & Book option which includes a signed copy of An American Book of the Dead by Kirsten Norrie.

The bookshop has level access, events are seated and speakers use microphones. If you have any concerns about accessibility, please do get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Refunds are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, we are unable to offer a refund after the event.

For more information or if you would like a signed copy because you can't make it to the event, please contact the Blackwell's events team on 0131 622 8222 or [email protected]

Event Venue

Blackwell's Bookshop, 53-62 South Bridge, Edinburgh, United Kingdom