You can now watch the recording of this event online
Last year, we welcomed Mae Diansangu and Shane Strachan to the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive for an afternoon of readings and discussion on how to reimagine archives. We explored representation in archives through an intersectional lens and interrogated how we can ensure queer stories are preserved.
Mae Diansangu is a queer poet and spoken word artist from Aberdeen. She has performed at literary festivals across Scotland and appeared on BBC Scotland’s Big Scottish Book Club and BBC Radio 4’s Tongue and Talk. Her series of poems “black lives, heavy truths” is part of the National Library of Scotland’s collection. You can read her work in the anthologies “Tales fae the Doric Side” and “Re creation – a queer poetry anthology”. Mae writes in both English and Doric, and her first collection BLOODSONGS (Tapsalteerie) was published in Autumn 2024.
Shane Strachan’s debut poetry collection DWAMS was published in April 2024 by Tapsalteerie. He was awarded Scots Champion at the 2023 Scots Language Awards following his year as the National Library of Scotland’s Scots Scriever. His previous works include novella Nevertheless: Sparkian Tales in Bulawayo (amaBooks), podcast, film and exhibition The Bill Gibb Line, and multiple poems and stories in Gutter, New Writing Scotland, Northwords Now, Stand and others. His poetry has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in Aberdeen Art Gallery. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Aberdeen where he now lectures in Creative Writing.
Mae Diansangu contributed to the recently published collection Who Will Be Remembered Here – Queer Spaces in Scotland. The fourteen authors make invisible stories visible by exploring the places and spaces which define their queer history. The book reconsiders and reimagines the built and natural environment through a queer lens, to uncover stories full of hope and humanity.
The recording of our Reimagining the Archive event is now available to watch here and on our YouTube channel.
