Soltysek, Raymond 1958–

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Barrhead, Scotland.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Language Education, University of Strathclyde, David Stow Bldg., 76 Southbrae Dr., Glasgow G13 1PP, Scotland. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Former high school teacher; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, lecturer in English.

MEMBER: Paisley Writers' Group.

AWARDS, HONORS: Scottish Arts Council grant, 2001; Saltire First Book Award nominee, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Occasional Demons (stories), Eleven/Nine (Glasgow, Scotland), 2000.

Work appears in anthologies, including New Scottish Writing, 1997. Contributor to periodicals, including Rebel Inc.

ADAPTATIONS: The story "The Practicality of Magnolia" was adapted as a short film by New Found Land in 2002; stories have been adapted for radio plays by British Broadcasting Corporation's BBC Radio 4.

SIDELIGHTS: Raymond Soltysek's first story collection, Occasional Demons, was chosen for publication by Eleven/Nine, an imprint set up jointly by the Scottish Arts Council and Neil Wilson Publishing. The volume contains twenty stories, among them "The Practicality of Magnolia," which has been adapted as a short film. The story concerns a widow who develops a relationship with a young man with a dark secret in his past. Speaking of the story "Newton's Cradle," which tells of a wife abuser who beats the older poet who propositions him in a public toilet, Soltysek noted on the Eleven Nine Web site that this story was his "breakthrough story."… It was so far removed from my own personality and experience and it felt so uncomfortable but somehow so right that I realised the trick for me was to let my mind take me down its own unvisited little back alleyways." Soltysek said that if he had to choose a central theme, "I suppose redemption would be the key word for me. All of my characters, I think, are looking for something, but often their tragedy is that they don't know what it is they're looking for, or what they think they're looking for feels somehow out of kilter, sometimes eventually destroying them." Writing for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies Web site, Suhayl Saadi found that, in this collection, "Soltysek tackles all the facets of human life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Association for Scottish Literary Studies Web site, http://www.2.arts.gla.ac.uk/ (August 18, 2005), Suhayl Saadi, "Infinite Diversity in New Scottish Writing."

Eleven/Nine Web site, http://www.11-9.co.uk/ (August 18, 2005), "Raymond Soltysek on the Writing of Occasional Demons.