[Untitled] brings only the truth to Falkirk for July event

[Untitled] Falkirk presents Truth Or Lies 2018 at the Melville Street venue from 7pm on Thursday, July 12 with tall tales aplenty from six successful short story writers – two local authors and four from further afield.

[Untitled] has proved it has the “write” stuff when it comes to putting together top notch cultural events – last year’s Louder Than Bairns night spectacularly combined music and spoken word performances to great effect – and Truth or Lies looks destined to be another literary crowd puller.

The [Untitled] magazine was created in 2012 with the aim of showcasing the district’s diverse creative talents – both in visual arts and literature – to a wider audience and it has gone on to expand into organising live performances with the same purpose.

Organiser Craig Allan, of [Untitled], said: “Truth or Lies features Grangemouth-born writer Andrew McCallum Crawford, who now resides in Greece, and he will be appearing in Falkirk for only the second time since he left Scotland in 1989.

“We’re hugely proud we’re able to continue to organise quality events like this, which have exciting performers from Falkirk at their heart. To have Andrew returning to Falkirk is a testament to, and recognition of, the hard work [Untitled] have put into providing regular literary events in Falkirk.”

Andrew’s stories have been published in many places and he has written two well-received collections of short fiction – The Next Stop Is Croy and Other Stories and A Man’s Hands.

The other local scribe is Bonnybridge’s Helen MacKinven, a Stirling University graduate who writes contemporary Scottish fiction, with a particular interest in exploring themes such as social class and identity, using black comedy and featuring Scots dialect.

The line-up also features award-winning Donal McLaughlin, whose titles included An Allergic Reaction to National Anthems and Other Stories and Beheading the Virgin Mary, and poet, author and creative writing teacher Carol McKay, whose work has graced many anthologies and magazines.

Edinburgh novelist Vicki Jarrett had the honour of having her book Nothing is Heavy shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year award, while her collection of tales, The Way Out, was in the running for the Frank O’Connor award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

And last, but by no means least, is Karen Jones, who writes flash – or extremely short stories – and short fiction with great success, with her work appearing in a wide variety of magazines, e-zines and print anthologies.

Visit https://truthorlies.brownpapertickets.com for tickets and www.untitledfalkirk.blogspot.co.uk for more information.