Zoë Strachan

(1975 –) - Kilmarnock

Zoë Strachan

Zoë Strachan was born in Irvine and grew up in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. She moved to Glasgow in 1992, where she began her studies at Glasgow University. She graduated in 1996 with an MA in Archaeology and Philosophy.

After university Strachan worked a range of jobs including telephone banking, call-centres, directory enquiries and dog walker, later enrolling on the Creative Writing course run by Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, from which she graduated with an M.Litt in 2000.

She was in good company on the course as Rachel Seiffert (The Dark Room) and Louise Welsh (The Cutting Room) accompanied her.

She was given a two-book advance by Picador and published her first novel, Negative Space, to much critical acclaim in 2002. The book was set in Orkney and her adopted city of Glasgow. The Herald commented, 'the Glasgow parts pin the city exactly.'

Negative Space was nominated for the Saltire First Book of the Year, the SAC Book of the Year and won a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel, Spin Cycle, was published in 2004.

She is a member of a group of young, female Glasgow writers known as the "Glasgow Girls", comprising Strachan, Louise Welsh, Laura Marney and Anne Donovan. Strachan publishes short stories in anthologies and literary magazines here and abroad, has written extensive journalism and some essays and criticism, and has written drama, short stories and other pieces for radio. She has also been teaching on the Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow since 2003, with a sabbatical in 2006 which she spent in Bamberg and Berlin.

Strachan is a UNESCO City of Literature Writer in Residence in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

  • Cover scan of Negative Space
    Negative Space Zoë Strachan
    Simon dies at only 24, leaving his sister alone and haunted by the past. An unexpected trip to Orkney offers a change in her tense and frightening world, and perhaps a solution to her confusion over what to do next.
  • Cover scan of Spin Cycle
    Spin Cycle Zoe Strachan
    Blacker and more ambitious than 'Negative Space', Zoë Strachan's vibrant second novel is illuminated by her light observational touch, deft characterization and gift for creating - and sustaining - suspense. 'Spin Cycle' tells of furtive desires and hidden obsessions.

Bibliography

Reviews of Zoë Strachan's Work

For Negative Space:

  • "A sparkling, fantastical tale" Eve
  • "A moving exploration of grief and bereavement . . . so rawly done it hurts to read" The Independent
  • "A perfect eye for the small detail . . . the first person voice drifts between past and present with astonishing effectiveness. Intimate and real." Scarlett Thomas, Independent on Sunday
  • "Strachan understands and conveys raw emotion. Many readers will connect with this story" Diva
  • "The author has a wonderful ear for dialogue and the Glasgow parts pin the city exactly" Glasgow Herald
  • "A powerful portrayal of grief" The Scotsman
  • "Nothing here feels neat or pat, and as a result this is a complex, mature novel with thought-provoking, well-crafted themes" Independent on Sunday
  • "Honest, intimate and powerful . . . You‚ll find yourself filled with an astonishingly vivid sense of what it is like to cope with the death of a loved one" Iafrica.com

For Spin Cycle:

  • "A gripping novel, full of twisted psychology and dark, covert obsessions; both murky and dazzling" Uncut
  • "Pitch-perfect: intelligent construction, unrelenting tension and a redemptive flourish of an ending" The Big Issue
  • "One of the most gorgeously written books I've read in a long time. Strachan illuminates the failings and dreams of her cast in graceful, probing brush strokes. Each page is wondrous and urgent and leaves you gasping for more. Strachan rocks." Helen Walsh, author of Brass
  • "Bringing the launderette sub-genre bang up to date, Strachan‚s three damaged female protagonists are complex, secretive and isolated. A rich, poignant work." The List
  • "Strachan breathes life into her characters and settings, and there's a warmth to her prose which suffuses reading about them with a sense of intimacy" Glasgow Herald
  • "Spin Cycle has the noir sexiness of Dance With a Stranger: idiosyncratic individuals, gnarled by bitterness and covetous desire, moments of small embarrassment and mundane realism, the eventual breathless climax" Uncut
  • "The tension never dips, dialogue is perfect. A must read" Daily Record
  • "Strachan follows her prize-winning first novel Negative Space with another well-observed and quietly forceful story about women in emotional turmoil . . . She makes us notice the everyday detail of their working lives, the minor tensions and the camaraderie, the idle chat and occasional pearls of wisdom, and introduces us to a parade of those strange people without washing machines who all get cameo parts while they‚re waiting for the spin cycle to finish" Independent on Sunday