John Bolland

John Bolland writes novels, short fiction and occasional poetry. Although raised on a housing scheme near Glasgow, he has been based in rural Aberdeenshire since 1989. For most of his adult life, he has supported his family and his writing by working (full or part-time) in the offshore oil & gas industry in the UK and overseas.

John’s primary interest is in prose forms and particularly the novel. He has completed three full length novels to date - A Murder of Crows (2003), The Dark Numbers (2006) and Bass 2008. He is currently working on two parallel novel-length projects More Tales from the Vampire Coast - a novel in English set in Paisley in the South West of Scotland during the between 1967 and the present -and Line of Sight – a novel in Scots set on the North East coast of Scotland in the near future.

In 2007, his short story, A Good Place to Get, was runner-up in the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Award run by the Royal Society for Literature and in 2008 he won 3rd prize in the annual Fish Short Story Competition with his story Scottische.

Other short stories and novel excerpts have appeared Pulp.net (2003), Snacks After Swimming (2005), The Glasgow Seeker (2005), The Tide Breathes Out (2006), Pushing Out the Boat (2007, 2009 and 2010), The London Magazine (2007) and Lallans (2008).

John’s writing has always engaged with themes of parenting and inter-generational responsibility and in recent years his interests have broadened to encompass issues of agency and complicity and particularly the creation and sustainability of identity in a globalised and post-modern context. The Dark Numbers specifically explored complicity with and resistance to economic and cultural globalisation and these themes are further developed in Bass, a novel set in Angola, Scotland and Korea.

His current novel-in-progress - More Tales from the Vampire Coast is a tale of children and demons, revenge and forgiveness.

John graduated with distinction from Glasgow University’s M.Litt. Creative Writing course in 2005.

He is also an enthusiastic painter and saxophonist and is a director of Top Left Corner, a creative social enterprise which brings people together in Assynt in the North West of Scotland to create written and other artworks. Top Left Corner's Glencanisp Creative Retreats provide opportunities for people to have new and inspiring experiences in Assynt and organises other events to celebrate the creativity of individuals, community and nature.

John also continues to work in change management and consultancy roles in the global energy industry on a part-time basis.