Crime In The Spotlight at Bloody Scotland 2025

The Open University is delighted to be supporting Crime In The Spotlight at Scotland's International Crime Writing Festival,​ Bloody Scotland 2025.

Inspired by the concept of support acts at music festivals, Crime in the Spotlight pairs the rising stars of the crime fiction scene with established crime writers and to date over 100 authors have taken to the spotlight stage.

Most famously author, Graeme Macrae Burnet was paired with Ian Rankin in 2015 and went on to be shortlisted for The Booker. Claire Askew who was a spotlighter in 2018 went on to win the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize in 2019 and this year is longlisted for the McIlvanney.

Crime in the Spotlight offers a platform to shine a spotlight on new crime writing talent during the festival, and authors will prepare a short reading or presentation before the events to share with audiences at Albert Halls, as well as book signing alongside the authors.

This year's selection of up-and-coming crime writers are:

• Frances Mckendrick
• JT Fernie
• Becky Brynolf
• Heather Darwent
• Remi Kone
• Laura Courtie
• Jenny Morris
• EC Nevin
• Kingsley Pearson
• Rupa Mahadevan
• Andrew Raymond
• Roger Corke
• Chris Black
• Allison Meldrum
• Piotr Cieplak

Heather Darwent will be appearing with her book A Sharp Scratch before our OU sponsored event Lone Wolf: Jo Nesbo on Friday, 12 September at 8.30pm. Andrew Raymond will be reading from his book The Bonnie Dead at the OU supported Richard Armitage & Denise Mina event on Saturday, 13 September at 7pm at the Albert Halls.

For more info and to book your place to watch online or in-person, please go to the Bloody Scotland website. 

You can try Creative Writing course content for free, on the OU site OpenLearn, such as Start writing fiction. 

The OU offers the modules Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing, a BA (Honours) English Literature and Creative Writing, and an MA in Creative Writing.