In The Herald Scotland today: a special focus on Alasdair Gray, with an article by Evie Glen on our Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social’s living archive model with a focus on @aowensarchive.bsky.social, our new commission with Rachelle Atalla & how this celebrates & shapes Scotland’s culture.

Owens wrote about “people like that.” Her stories centre those usually ignored, institutionalised, or condemned—without asking the reader for sympathy. She said: “The underdog can turn round and bite you just the same as any other dog.” This is fiction that refuses moral comfort.

With support from Gray, Kelman, and Lochhead, Agnes published Gentlemen of the West in 1984. The book centres on Mac, a young bricklayer navigating masculinity, unemployment, and collapse in post-industrial Scotland. Drawn from stories told by her son John.

In the mid-1970s, Agnes joined an extra-mural writing group in the Vale of Leven. Liz Lochhead read her story Arabella and immediately recognised its force—sharing it with Alasdair Gray and James Kelman. All three understood they were encountering a voice that refused compromise.

Agnes Owens wrote between shifts, childcare, & exhaustion. Her serious writing career began later in life - not from lack of ambition, but from structural constraint. Her work challenges the myth that literary greatness requires institutional permission.

Life in the Vale of Leven - After Sam Crosbie’s death, Agnes Owens moved to Alexandria and later married Patrick Owens. She raised seven children, worked multiple jobs, and wrote when she could—her fiction rooted in labour, home, and strained communities.

In 1949, Agnes and her family travelled north searching for work and housing. They lived in tents and condemned buildings before returning south. This period later became her autobiographical short story Marching to the Highlands and Into the Unknown.

Agnes attended Milngavie Public School & Bearsden Academy. In 1948, she married Sam Crosbie. Together they raised 4 children amid post-war housing shortages & employment insecurity. These pressures—domestic, economic, emotional—would become central to her fiction.

Agnes Owens (née McLearie), born 24 May 1926 in Milngavie, grew up working-class amid labour and war. These early rhythms shaped her unsentimental, darkly comic prose, alert to the quiet violences of ordinary life. #agnesowens #theagnesowensarchive

🎉 The Alasdair Gray Archive is 6! 🎉 Thanks to everyone who’s supported us since 2020. We’ve grown into a publicly accessible Glasgow resource, cared for by Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social. Help us keep growing—donate via the link in our bio. #alasdairgray #thealasdairgrayarchive

2026 marks 100 years since the birth of Agnes Owens. A year-long centenary programme will celebrate her life, writing, and legacy through archives, exhibitions, reissues, and public events. Full details via link in bio.

PLEASE SHARE 🙏 Come visit us and @aowensarchive.bsky.social in February 2026! Tours led by Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social  Sorcha worked with Alasdair since 2007, has a deep knowledge of the collections. ➡️February 6th, 13th, 20th, and 28th at 11am. Book via Eventbrite 🙏

Researching Agnes Owens: our archive is reshaping how she’s understood. Laura MacDonald’s CDA is the first full study of Owens’ work, using archives and oral histories to centre her as a feminist, working-class voice. Supported by @sgsah.bsky.social delivered with Strathclyde & Glasgow universities

Gray Day 2026: Reimagined Glasgow—45 Years of Lanark. Alasdair & Agnes: connected archives & literary lives with Sorcha @sorchadallas.bsky.social @aowensarchive.bsky.social & Laura MacDonald. 25 Feb, Kelvingrove, 2–3pm. Free: [email protected]

What’s in the Agnes Owens Archive? 700+ items (and growing): draft manuscripts, letters with Gray, Kelman & Lochhead, photos, press cuttings, plays, poetry & radio scripts—revealing a writer of precision and urgency.

Introducing The Agnes Owens Archive (AOA). Housed within @agrayarchive.bsky.social it is the first standalone satellite archive —illuminating the creative network around Gray while restoring Owens to her rightful literary position. Posts to follow will celebrate her life and legacy.

Thanks to @scotnational.bsky.social & @kirstininnes.bsky.social for featuring Agnes Owens as one of the ‘10 Things That Changed My Life’ in todays issue. We’re thrilled to welcome Kirstin & @heatherparry.bsky.social next week to begin their writer residencies with us & @agrayarchive.bsky.social

Great piece on a great writer. My 1985 edition of Lean Tales is a treasured possession.

A brilliant read- planning to buy the books now too

“She was so good at evoking the claustrophobia and darkness and poverty of economics but plenitude of mind." An excellent piece on Agnes Owens, by @danigaravelli.bsky.social. Dani has also written the introduction to a new edition of Gentlemen Of The West, which will be published by Polygon in May.

It's the centenary of the wonderful Agnes Owens' birth this year. Her books are being reissued & a satellite archive has officially opened within the Alasdair Gray archive. I spoke to her son, John, & wrote about this "most unfairly neglected of Scottish authors" in the @heraldscotland.bsky.social.

Both the @agrayarchive.bsky.social and the @aowensarchive.bsky.social are here on Bluesky – follow them for more information!

Just picked up a copy of today’s Herald. Good timing as I’ve finished For The Love of Willie today. It’s my 3rd time reading it and the ending still catches me off guard. I’d made lots of notes about Peggy previously, so the plan is to distill all of this and finish a psychological portrait for her

Pick up The Herald magazine today 🗞️ for @danigaravelli.bsky.social on Agnes Owens—her overlooked place in Scottish lit and plans for her 2026 centenary, plus reissues by @birlinn.bsky.social and archive work celebrating her legacy we are developing with @agnesowenslitest.bsky.social

PLEASE SHARE — WE’RE OPEN 📚 The Agnes Owens Archive is now open at @agrayarchive.bsky.social AGA’s first satellite archive, restoring Owens to her rightful place in Scottish literature. Free tours Jan 23 & 31, 2026. Book via Eventbrite (link in bio). #agnesowens #theagnesowensarchive

Fantastic news that Agnes Owens’ complete work will be republished this year from Polygon/ Birlinn. New readers are in for an absolute treat! Follow @aowensarchive.bsky.social archive as they unfurl plans to celebrate her centenary year in 2026.

I have my original editions still but these new @aowensarchive.bsky.social ones with Joan Eardley art work and introductions by excellent Scottish women writers like @danigaravelli.bsky.social & Jenni Fagan look great

✨ Agnes Owens Centenary ✨ 2026 marks Agnes Owens’ centenary, with AGA’s first satellite archive and Birlinn reissuing all her books with new introductions. New editions publish May & Sept 2026. Follow @aowensarchive.bsky.social to find out more!

Exciting announcement from Birlinn today - we are proud to be collaborating with them and @agnesowenslitest.bsky.social on centenary plans across 2026 and to bringing Agnes Owens work to a wider audience 💫

Building the Collection: AGA grew from preserving 5,000+ items from Gray’s home to a living archive—now 3,500 donated works and the 700-item including the new @aowensarchive.bsky.social —showing Gray within a wider cultural ecosystem.

Happy Hogmanay! ✨ Today is also Jeff Torrington’s birthday(1935–2008), the Glaswegian author of Swing Hammer Swing!, a landmark novel & winner of the 1992 Whitbread Book of the Year. His friends included Gray & @aowensarchive.bsky.social seen here in The Kelvingrove Eight
© Calum Colvin

Merry Christmas from all at The Agnes Owens Archive! Whatever the festive period has in store for you, we wish you a happy and restful break! We are delighted that 2026 will mark the official opening of the Agnes Owens Archive as well as the centenary of her birth.

She’d forgive you! It’s Agnes Owens’ centenary in May 2026 and there’s going to be reissues of her Collected Stories and her o/p Collected Novellas. Her archive has also now found a home at the Alasdair Gray archive in Glasgow @agrayarchive.bsky.social @aowensarchive.bsky.social

Our January tours of AGA and @aowensarchive.bsky.social are now available to book via Eventbrite!

Come visit the AOA and @agrayarchive.bsky.social with Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social in January- free tours via booking link here 👉🏽 tr.ee/ISRtuJY_T0

The Agnes Owens Archive opens January 2026, celebrating one of Scotland’s most distinctive literary voices. Marking her centenary, a programme of events and free guided tours will be announced soon. #AgnesOwens

🔥 2026 Residencies 🔥 @kirstininnes.bsky.social & @heatherparry.bsky.social named Writers-in-Residence at the Alasdair Gray & @aowensarchive.bsky.social Chosen from 130+ applicants, they’ll spend 8 months creating new work inspired by overlooked voices, supported by @creativescots.bsky.social

Our Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social spoke at Creative Scotland’s Go See Share webinar today on her research into new financial models for artists’ archives, exploring UK examples to support sustainable, artist-led futures in Scotland.

What a year! ✨ Thanks for being part of an incredible 2025 at AGA. 🤍 From 4,800+ tour visitors to new commissions, events & trustees, it’s been huge. Your support makes it all possible — see our 2025 Annual Review, now on our website! ✨

Deadline this Thursday, 04.12.25 at 5pm! thealasdairgrayarchive.org/wp-content/u...

✨ Emerging animators! ✨ AGA & @canongate.co.uk are commissioning 4 short animations for early 2026. Fee £500. Apply by 6 Dec 2025: CV, brief approach + 2–3 samples to [email protected]. Results by 15 Dec.

Delighted to welcome Peter Kravitz for an oral history interview with our @sgsah.bsky.social CDA student, Laura MacDonald at the archive yesterday. He shared rich insights into publishing and Owens’ work, even reading ‘When Shankland Comes.’ Thank you, Peter!

Pls Share! 📣 Teachers! Explore Looking at Glasgow: Buildings and Stories with Alasdair Gray — a new 8-lesson P6–P7 resource on Glasgow’s art, identity & architecture. 🎨 Email [email protected] for free pack! #Glasgow850 #CfE

Link to apply here! thealasdairgrayarchive.org/wp-content/u...

📣PLEASE SHARE 📣 Call for Writers! Two 8-month residencies (2026) at AGA & @aowensarchive.bsky.social exploring Neglected Voices. Supported by Creative Scotland. £12k fee, flexible structure. Apply by 4 Dec 2025 👉 [email protected], Link on website to application brief & criteria✍️

Deadline Thursday! thealasdairgrayarchive.org/wp-content/u...

A real treat to welcome the brilliant @kirstininnes.bsky.social to AGA today and to show her the @aowensarchive.bsky.social archive collection ❤️ #alasdairgray #agnesowens #thealasdairgrayarchive #theagnesowensarchive

Timeline post 24: 1975 - In this year Alasdair meets Agnes Owens @aowensarchive.bsky.social through Liz Lochhead who was teaching at a local writers group in Alexandria which Agnes attended. Alasdair would champion her throughout her life & they would send each other transcripts to edit.

Thanks to everyone who attended our @sgsah.bsky.social Summer School session today on ‘Reflecting Creative Practice Through Archiving’. Our Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social enjoyed sharing her journey to growing AGA over the last five years & the development of @aowensarchive.bsky.social