Keeping Away the Spiders

In a series of honest, often humorous and brutally frank essays, Anne Pia discusses sexuality, gender identity, reluctant feminism, and food as a sumptuous, sensual game-changer. She conveys her exhilaration at the transformative power of music and learning, clothes and fashion. She gives an unflinching account of coming to terms with a daughter's disability. This life-changing book shows how positive energy can be drawn from life's most challenging experiences. Anne asks the central question: 'Who am I and who do I want to be?' and invites the reader to do the same.

Anne Pia's creative memoir Language of My Choosing was shortlisted for the Saltire Award for Best New Book of 2017. In 2018, Anne was awarded the Premio Italiano Linguistica. With the assistance of funding from Publishing Scotland the Italian translation Ho Scelto La Mia Lingua was published in 2018 by MnM edizioni. Her first poetry collection, Transitory, was published in 2018. Anne's poetry and essays have appeared in among others, The Blue Nib, Northwords Now, Poetry Scotland, Lunar Poetry, The Fat Damsel and London's South Bank Poetry magazine. Anne has appeared at the Dundee Literary Festival and the Stanza International Poetry Festival and has done events in venues across Scotland including the Scottish Storytelling Centre, the National Library of Scotland, the City Art Centre, Glasgow Women's Library and the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh. In 2018 she was invited to the British Institute in Florence and to the Torino Book Festival in 2019 to showcase her book.