Authors Elizabeth Reeder and Gillian Shirreffs – Demystifying Death Week

Demystifying Death Week is about giving people knowledge, skills and opportunities to plan and support each other through death, dying, loss and care. Join us from 11am-12 noon on 7th May for our Demystifying Death Week event with writers Elizabeth Reeder (microbursts & An Archive of Happiness) and Gillian Shirreffs (Brodie) as they share their work and talk about the highs and lows of writing about difficult topics like illness, dying, death and grief.

Elizabeth Reeder, is author of microbursts (Prototype), a hybrid work about the illnesses and deaths of her parents, which is a design collaboration with Amanda Thomson. Her third novel is An Archive of Happiness (Penned in the Margins) takes place in the Scottish Highlands and explores the unsentimental work of love in a family. She is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at University of Glasgow.

Gillian Shirreffs, is author of Brodie (Into Books), a novel about six women whose lives intertwine over three decades, told by Brodie, the beloved object that connects them. Her fiction explores the world of illness, mainly the lived experience of multiple sclerosis. Gillian’s narrative nonfiction interrogates medical objects, places and spaces. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, this new illness experience is reflected in her recent writing.

We’ll be joined by a wide range of support services after the talk, including Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries, Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, Marie Curie, Lifelink, Richmond’s Hope and Age Scotland.

Explore the Glasgow Life Libraries reading list on death, dying and bereavement for thoughts and ideas on how to help when someone is dying or grieving.

Join our monthly Grief Café with Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Ibrox Library.

Please contact librarieshealthandwellbeing@glasgowlife.org.uk or 0141 287 2903 with any questions.