Gray Day 25th February – A celebration of writer & artist Alasdair Gray
Gray Day 2025
A celebration of Alasdair Gray at 90
The FIFTH annual Gray Day honouring the life and work of renowned Scottish polymath, Alasdair Gray, in what would have been his 90th birthday year. Join us for a celebration of his seismic impact on art and culture through an evening of readings, performances, comedic interpretations and new animations, aptly staged under his masterwork ceiling mural in the Òran Mór.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster Nicola Meighan, with Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Ashley Storrie, Alan Bissett and Sara Sheridan.
In addition
Free lunchtime talks at Kelvingrove
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is home to Alasdair’s painting ‘Cowcaddens Streetscape in the Fifties’ and they are hosting two lunchtime talks in the week of Gray Day. The talks will shed light in Alasdair’s vision of the city as a “lost civilisation” and his art-making practice. They are free to all. More information
Who is Alasdair Gray?
Alasdair Gray (1934–2019) was a writer and artist. His books include Lanark (widely regarded as a masterpiece of Scottish fiction), Poor Things (now an award-winning film), Unlikely Stories, Mostly, 1982, Janine and his Englishing of Dante’s Divine Trilogy. As well as designing and illustrating his own books, his art included murals, paintings, prints and more.
What is Gray Day?
Gray Day is the 25th February, an annual day-long celebration of Alasdair Gray’s life and work. The first Gray Day was held in 2021 on the 40th anniversary of the publication of Lanark, and included a Gray Day Broadcast. In 2022 and 2023, Gray Day was celebrated with a live event at the Òran Mór in Glasgow, beneath Alasdair’s celestial ceiling mural.
An array of writers, actors and musicians have joined to celebrate Alasdair for Gray Day including Ali Smith, Alan Cumming, Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Gemma Cairney, Chitra Ramaswamy, Alex Kapranos, Ewen Bremner, Louise Welsh, Salena Godden, Bernard MacLaverty, Michael Pedersen, Hollie McNish, Norman Blake and more.
Photos of Gray Days past can be found in the gallery.
‘A twentieth century William Blake’
Observer
‘Everyone must read Alasdair Gray’
Guardian
‘Ushered in a literary renaissance’
The Times
‘One of the very greatest writers of the last fifty years’
Jonathan Coe
‘A necessary genius’
Ali Smith
A selected Gray bibliography
Novels
Lanark
1982, Janine
The Fall of Kelvin Walker
McGrotty and Ludmilla
Poor Things
A History Maker
Old Men in Love
Short Story Collections
Unlikely Stories, Mostly
The Ends of Our Tethers
Every Short Story 1951–2012
Non-Fiction & Others
A Life in Pictures
Of Me & Others
A Gray Play Book
McGrotty and Ludmilla
Gray’s Englishing of Dante’s Divine trilogy: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise
Alasdair Gray in Other Places
Archivists & Publishers
Galleries & The Like
Assorted Others
A Life in Progress (documentary)