He attended the Lester B. Pearson United World College in Victoria, B.C., Canada, the University of Hull where he was awarded the Philip Larkin Prize, and the University of Edinburgh where he completed his doctoral studies in African and Indian Literature.
The first festival included some well known Scottish writers, as well as up and coming authors from around the world, including Ali Smith, Ian Rankin, Douglas Dunn, A. L. Kennedy, Kapka Kassabova, Ronan Sheehan, Rajorshi Chakraborti, Dilys Rose, Dean Parkin, Robert Alan Jamieson, Owen Dudley Edwards, and many others.