Broken Sleep Books Scotland Showcase: Ricky Monahan Brown &Maria Sledmere

Ricky Monahan Brown is known for writing prose; Maria Sledmere, poetry. For their respective publications from Broken Sleep Books, however, both went to ‘the other side’ – from this came the 'ambient' novella The Indigo Hours, and the poetry pamphlet Drawer of Letters.Who let this happen? Should we be concerned? How did this change their approaches to writing, if at all? And, now the dust has settled, what happens next?
For answers to these questions, readings from their new books, and a discussion on the boundaries between genre and form, join us on Wednesday June 3rd at Typewronger.

Ricky Monahan Brown’s debut poetry pamphlet Drawer of Letters has been acclaimed by Saltire Award-winner Jane McKie as “wonderfully audacious”. His memoir, Stroke: A 5% chance of survival, was a Scotsman Nonfiction Book of 2019, and reviewers wrote that the 2024 fiction collection, Terminal, summoned the spirit of his literary hero, Robert Louis Stevenson. The spoken word event Ricky co-founded, the possibly-mourned Interrobang?! won the 2017 Saboteur Award for Best Regular Spoken Word Night in Britain.

Maria Sledmere is the author of over 20 books of poetry, fiction and criticism. She is Senior Lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, managing editor of SPAM Press and one half of Project Somnolence: a portable lab for exploring sleep across art, literature, and daily life. Recent works include The Indigo Hours (Broken Sleep, 2025), Languishing, cute – with Ian Macartney (Tapsalteerie, 2025), Midsummer Song (Hypercritique) (Tenement Press, 2024), Cinders (Krupskaya, 2024) and An Aura of Plasma Around the Sun (Hem Press, 2023).

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