Having worked in the past as a nightwatchman, holiday rep, punk drummer, customer service advisor, chef, composer, barman, door to door salesman, guitar teacher, dishwasher, video editor, and publishing intern (entailing an extraordinarily brief period as literary publicist to football commentary legend Archie McPherson) Dave Watson was halfway through a Music and Digital Media degree at the University of Glasgow when he met Writer in Residence Louise Welsh, and asked if she'd take a look at a half finished novel he'd been toying with over the last ten years.

 

Intrigued by this half baked splatterpunk tale of drugs, cannibalism and teenage hijinks, Louise saw something in it and encouraged Watson to finish the story. And so it came to pass, he unleashed his debut novel In the Devil's Name on an unsuspecting public in the summer of 2012. Three years later he gained his masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling, and to date has written and published three more novels and two collections of fiction and poetry.

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His short stories, poems and articles have appeared in several international collections, winning gongs and acclaim from Greenock to Dunedin, including  nominations for a Pushcart Prize in the US and the UK People's Book Prize. He has appeared and performed at the Edinbugh and Glasgow Horror Festivals, Tamfest, Cymera Book Festival, Paisley Book Festival, Book Week Scotland and the 2023 Granite Noir. At Burnsfest 2018, Watson appeared on the main stage as the warm up act for the one and only Chesney Hawkes, a personal milestone and career highlight.

 

He lives with his family on the west coast of Scotland, and is still telling tall tales.