Biography

Mark Thomson was born and grew up in Dundee during the 80s in one of the housing schemes built on the edge of the city. Leaving school, after a mutually disappointing experience, he went straight into a factory job. The next 10 years or so saw him moving from factory to factory finally ending up on a building site as a laborer. So far all slightly predictable … until one day due a combination of events he packed it all in, and started to write.

At first he tried writing how he’d been taught at school but still struggled to fully engage with a language and words that didn’t reflect his own Dundonian upbringing. He decided to write as he spoke, and has never looked back. His work revolves around his own experiences growing up in a city, in places now described as areas of deprivation. He reflects on the uncomfortable but not uncommon subject matters of drugs, alcohol and violence whilst remaining loyal to themes of family, friends, home and Scotland.

He is now a poet, performer and creative writing teacher and has worked nationally across Scotland, working with community groups and statutory and voluntary organisations in places such as diverse as football stadiums, classrooms and prisons. He also features as a regular speaker at national cultural, literacy and voluntary sector conferences.