Alan Bissett was born and raised in Falkirk and now lives in Glasgow. He is the author of the novels Boyracers (Polygon, 2001), The Incredible Adam Spark (Headline, 2005), and Death of a Ladies’ Man (Hachette, July 2009).

Alan’s first play, The Ching Room, was commissioned by Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and was shown at Oran Mor and Traverse in March 2009 to great critical acclaim. In the same month, Alan performed his own ‘one woman show,’ Times When I Bite, monologues from the perspective of ‘Falkirk’s hardest woman’ at the Aye Write! Festival in Glasgow. Times When I Bite is being adapted for film, and Alan has also collaborated with award-winning director Sacha Kyle on The Library (Arches/ Traverse, April 2009). He is a regular performer at Discombobulate, a monthly literature/comedy night which runs at the Arches in Glasgow.

In 2007 he collaborated with Malcolm Middleton (ex Arab Strap) on the song ‘The Rebel On His Own Tonight’ for the music/literature crossover album Ballads of the Book. He is highly in demand as a live performer – in schools, at book or music festivals, and, increasingly, as a support act for indie bands (Sons and Daughters, Zoey Van Goey, Y’All Is Fantasy Island, Pop Up, De Rosa, Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines, at their first-ever comeback gig in 2008). Alan has performed at the Latitude and Connect music festivals, and at international festivals in Holland, the USA, Croatia and Serbia.

He lectured in Creative Writing at the Universities of Leeds (2002-04) and Glasgow (2004-07), before becoming a full-time writer. He writes intermittent academic criticism, and a blog for The Guardian. In 2008 he was named Falkirk Personality of the Year, and the Daily Record voted him the 46th Hottest Man in Scotland, a title he takes very seriously indeed.

Boyracers is currently being adapted for film, having received funding from Scottish Screen. Alan is writing the sequel to the novel, to be published in 2010, set in Manchester on the day of Glasgow Rangers’ UEFA Cup Final appearance.