Participant(s) Bio
Irvine Welsh grew up in a housing project outside Edinburgh, Scotland. He left school at the age of sixteen, took a series of dead-end jobs, and eventually received a Master of Business Studies degree.
His first novel, Trainspotting, published in Britain in 1993, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and achieved stunning popularity and critical attention. The book was made into a box office smash the same year and established Welsh as "the voice of a generation," (Jenifer Berman, Bomb). Welsh was introduced to American readers in May, 1995 with The Acid House, his second book, a collection of short stories and a novella set in the underworld of British drifters, dopers, thieves, killers, maniacs, sex fiends and losers. Ecstasy, three novellas comprising Welsh's fourth book, was published in August 1996. His other books include Filth, Glue and Porno.
www.irvinewelsh.net
David L. Ulin is book editor of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith, and the editor of Another City: Writing from Los Angeles and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
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