° 1934

Lives in Glasgow (United Kingdom).

Alasdair Gray describes himself as a ‘self-employed verbal and pictorial artist’. He was born in Riddrie, Glasgow, and trained as a painter at the Glasgow School of Art. He worked as a part-time art teacher, muralist and theatrical scene painter before becoming a full-time painter and playwright. Later he wrote fiction, illustrating many of his own books. His highly-acclaimed first novel Lanark was published in 1981. It won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Scottish Book of the Year award.

He has also written for stage, radio and television. In 2001 he became, with Tom Leonard and James Kelman, joint Professor of the Creative Writing programme at Glasgow and Strathclyde University. His latest book is Old Men in Love (2007), shortlisted for the 2008 Catherine Maclean Prize.