Kirstin Innes (born 1980) is a Scottish novelist and journalist.

Early life

Innes was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1980, and raised by a single mother. She attended

James Gillespie's High School James Gillespie's High School is a state-funded secondary school in Marchmont, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a comprehensive high school, educating pupils between the ages of 11 and 18, situated at the centre of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle and Holy ...

and then

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

Career

In 2005, Innes moved to Glasgow to work at The Arches. She also worked as Assistant Editor at ''The List''. Innes's writing is influenced by her mother and grandmother's

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...

. Innes's debut novel, ''Fishnet'' (2019), won ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

s Not The Booker Prize in 2015 and was praised by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' for its depiction of sex workers as "women with rich inner lives and interests". Innes has written about how her friendship with the

sex workers' rights Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but ...

activist

Laura Lee Laura Lee can refer to: * Laura Lee (singer-songwriter) (born 1945), American soul and gospel singer-songwriter * Laura Lee (sex worker) (1973–2018), Irish-born sex worker and activist based in the UK * Laura Lee (bassist) (born 1986), Mexican-Ame ...

influenced the novel. Her second novel, ''Scabby Queen'', was published by 4th Estate in 2020. It was longlisted for the 2020

Gordon Burn Prize Gordon Burn (16 January 1948 – 17 July 2009) was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction. Background Burn's novels deal with issues of modern fame and faded celebrity as l ...

. In November 2021, Salmander Street will publish ''Brickwork: A Biography of The Arches'' , co-written by Innes and former The Arches colleague David Bratchpiece.

Personal life

Innes' partner is the author and playwright

Alan Bissett Alan Bissett (born 17 November 1975) is an author and playwright from Hallglen, an area of Falkirk in Scotland. After the publication of his first two novels, '' Boyracers'' and ''The Incredible Adam Spark'', he became known for his different t ...

, with whom she has two children. The couple, who met in 2007, have discussed their experiences with

IVF In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) fr ...

publicly with the aim of reducing the stigma around

infertility Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state ...

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Innes, Kirstin 1980 births Living people 21st-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Scottish novelists Scottish women novelists Scottish magazine editors British women journalists 21st-century Scottish journalists Writers from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Aberdeen