Alan Spence is an award-winning poet and playwright, novelist and short-story writer. His awards include the McVitie Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year and Scottish Book of the Year for his novel, Stone Garden (1995). He lives in Edinburgh where he and his wiferun the Sri Chinmoy Mediation Centre. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen, where he is also Artistic Director of the annual WORD Festival.