Episode 1 - City

Chitra Ramaswamy is a journalist and author. Her latest book, Homelands: The History of a Friendship, published by Canongate in April 2022, is a work of creative non-fiction exploring her friendship with a 98-year-old German Jewish refugee called Henry Wuga. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy, published by Saraband in April 2016, won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize. She has contributed essays to Antlers of Water, Nasty Women, The Freedom Papers, The Bible, and Message From The Skies. She writes for The Guardian, is the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, and broadcasts for BBC Radio.

Denise Mina is a very clued-up crime writer – she has taught criminology and studied law. In fact, it was during her PhD at Strathclyde University that she penned her first novel: Garnethill (1998), which won the Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger for best first crime novel. Garnethill’s two sequels Exile (2000) and Resolution (2001) followed, and she has since published numerous more books and written a number of the John Constantine Hellblazer comics. Mina is also a playwright; Ida Tamson went to stage in 2006, and A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle, based on the Scots Hugh MacDiarmid poem, in 2007.

Karine Polwart is a multi-award-winning Scottish songwriter, folk singer, composer, theatre-maker and author. Recent projects include her Scottish Songbook re-imaginings of classic Scottish pop; The Lost Words: Spell Songs, a multi-artist response to environmental loss and climate breakdown; and Wind Resistance, her peatbog-inspired theatre show for The Royal Lyceum/EIF. 2021 saw both the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra commission new works, in collaboration with sound designer/composer Pippa Murphy, and in the lead up to COP26 Karine wrote Enough is Enough, a participative piece, commissioned by Oi Musica for massed voices & street bands, and performed by ensembles from Glasgow to London, and Brussels to Accra.

Sara Shaarawi is a playwright from Cairo, based in Glasgow. Her first play Niqabi Ninja was produced by Independent Arts Projects (Edinburgh) and Hewar Theatre Company (Alexandria) and was performed in London (Shubbak Festival), Edinburgh (EIF/Lyceum), Glasgow (Tramway), Inverness (Eden Court), Aberdeen (Lemon Tree) and Dundee (Dundee Rep) as well as in Alexandria and Cairo. Her writing has been commissioned and supported by many theatre companies including the National Theatre of Scotland, Stellar Quines Theatre Company, and Fuel Theatre.