The twelve stories in Letting Go take us on a journey through landscape, language and turbulent times, from the mid-19th century to the present day, and into the future. Stevenson’s array of characters from many walks of life and nationalities – including a traveller, a wood carver, chicken farm workers, a nurse, an architect and a magician – meet and part, some becoming reacquainted.
Themes exploring identity, creativity and the environment, echo and connect throughout the different narratives, sometimes carried in snatches of song. The author leads us outward from her native Scottish Borders to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Gàidhealtachd, south to England, across the Atlantic to Apartheid South Africa and, finally, to the melting Arctic.
Gerda Stevenson, writer/actor/director/singer/songwriter, has worked on stage, television, radio, film, and opera, throughout Britain and abroad. She has read her poetry at many international festivals, including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ireland, Trinidad, and Italy. A recipient of Scottish Arts Council and Creative Scotland writers’ bursaries, her writing is studied on the Contemporary Scottish Literature course at the University of Glasgow. Her poetry collection If This Were Real was published in Italian by Edizioni Ensemble in Rome, 2017. Her stage play Federer Versus Murray toured to New York in 2012, part of the Scottish Government’s NYC Scotland Week celebrations. Stevenson is a familiar voice on the airwaves, and has written many plays for BBC Radio. She has won a Scottish BAFTA Best Film Actress award, and nominations include three times for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland, for the International Committee of New York’s League of Professional Theatre Women’s Gilder/Coigney International Award, and for the MG Alba Scots Singer of the Year Award, following the launch of her acclaimed album Night Touches