| Alan Bissett |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ALAN BISSETT | |
| 1975 births | |
| bissett, alan | |
| living people | |
| people from falkirk | |
| scottish novelists | |
| alumni of the university of stirling | |
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Bissett was born into a working-class family in Falkirk in 1975, the eldest son of a mechanical fitter and a housewife. He attended the University Of Stirling , where he gained a First Class Honours degree in English Literature and Education. After a spell as a secondary school teacher in Elgin , Bissett attained a Masters degree in English from the University Of Stirling , during which time he edited a collection of Scottish Gothic stories, ''Damage Land'' (2001), and wrote his first novel, ''Boyracers''. His stories were either short- or longlisted for the national Macallan Short-Story Competition four times between 1999 and 2002. Influenced by Scottish novelists like James Kelman , Irvine Welsh and Des Dillon , as well as the American Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and the rhythms of contemporary pop music, Bissett's prose style is fast-paced and freewheeling. "I want to write books that people can dance to," he has said in an interview. As such, he quotes endlessly from cultural artefacts such as film, music, advertising, comic books and television, but enfolds this commercial language into the Scottish vernacular to create an idiom, both local and global, that is uniquely his. His characters are young, working-class males from Bissett's home-town of Falkirk, whose finances are slim and whose options are limited. Although his protagonists are trapped, often depressingly, by the confines of their class, Bissett leavens his narratives with generous helpings of humour and energy. Bissett began work on a third novel in 2005. A film version of ''The Incredible Adam Spark'' is currently planned. EXTERNAL LINK |
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