Malachy Tallack

Malachy Tallack is an award-winning author, whose work – both fiction and nonfiction – centres around themes of place, community and the relationships between people and nature. His first book, Sixty Degrees North (Polygon, 2015), was an account of journeys taken along the sixtieth parallel, around the world. It was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Saltire first book award. His second, The Un-Discovered Islands (Polygon, 2016), an atlas of mythical and mysterious isles, was named illustrated book of the year at the Edward Stanford travel writing awards. Malachy’s most recent work, The Valley at the Centre of the World (Canongate, 2018), was his debut novel, set in a crofting community in the Shetland Islands. It was shortlisted for the Highland Book prize and longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje prize. Malachy has received both a New Writers award and the Robert Louis Stevenson fellowship from the Scottish Book Trust and, in 2017, was one of five authors selected to take part in Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Outriders programme, for which he travelled through the United States, from North Dakota to Louisiana. In addition to his prose writing, Malachy was founding editor of the online journal the Island Review, and was previously editor of Shetland Life magazine. As a singer- songwriter, he has released four albums and an EP, and has performed in venues across the UK. Malachy is from Shetland, and currently lives in Dunblane.

Malachy Tallack is an award winning author and editor. He has published books of both fiction and non-fiction, most recently Illuminated by Water (2022). Malachy is managing editor of Gutter, Scotland’s leading literary journal, and has taught many workshops for creative writers at all levels. He was previously a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Dundee (2021-2023), helping students to improve the clarity and precision of their academic work. For him, these are the two key elements of all good prose writing. Malachy is from Shetland, and now lives in Fife.