Hollie McNish: Slug Book Tour

Ted Hughes Award winner Hollie McNish is a poet whose live readings are not to be missed. Expect strong language and adult content ribbon wrapped in carefully and caringly sculpted poetry as Hollie reads from and chats about her much anticipated new collection: Slug…and other things i’ve been told to hate. 

“One of the best poets we have” – Matt Haig
“Makes me cry and howl with laughter” – Paapa Essiedu
“Like Pam Ayres on acid” – Lemn Sissay
“Her writing is sublime” – Ellie Taylor
“Rubbish” – Ellie Wheeler, The Telegraph
“I like some poetry but not really yours” – Hollie’s daughter 

Michael Pedersen will join Hollie as the support for this show.

About Slug…and other things i’ve been told to hate 

From Finnish mermaids and soppy otters to Kellogg’s anti-masturbation pants, Slug is a book that holds a mirror up to the world, past and present, through Hollie’s driving, funny and beautiful words. A blend of poetry, memoir and short story, Slug is an absolutely joyful read about the human condition: from birth to death and her attempt to manage the tangle in-between. 

About Hollie McNish

Hollie McNish is a poet and author based between Glasgow and Cambridge. She won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her poetic parenting memoir – Nobody Told Me –  of which The Scotsman stated ‘The World Needs this Book’. She has published four further collections of poetry – Papers, Cherry Pie, Plum and her most recent poetic memoir Slug…and other things I’ve been told to hate, which is a Sunday Times Bestseller. She has just completed a re-imagining of Sophocles’ Greek Tragedy Antigone, published by Hachette. Hollie loves writing. Her poetry has been translated into German, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Japanese and French. She is a patron of Baby Milk Action. 

About Michael Pedersen 

Left Michael Pedersen on pink background. Left book Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen on purple background

Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet, scribbler and stitcher. He’s unfurled two acclaimed collections of poetry with a poetic prose debut, Boy Friends, out with Faber & Faber in July 2022. He won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, the John Mather’s Trust Rising Star of Literature Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 ‘Writer of the Year’ at The Herald Scottish Culture Awards. With work anthologised by the likes of Pan MacMillan and Canongate Books, his writing has attracted plaudits from voices as luscious as Irvine Welsh, Jackie Kay, Shirley Manson and Charlotte Church. 

Running Time: 2 hours (inc interval.)

Recommended age: 14+

Content Warning: Some adult sexual content

Waterstones will be selling copies of Boy Friends and Slug…and other things i’ve been told to hate during the evening. There will be a book signing as part of this event.

On sale to Friends: Fri 25 Feb
On sale to Members: Mon 28 Feb
On sale to General Public: Tues 1 Mar

£10: Ticket Only
£20: Ticket + Hollie McNish’s new book Slug…and other things i’ve been told to hate
£30: Ticket + Hollie McNish’s new book + Michael Pedersen’s new book Boyfriends