About

Close up on head and bare shoulders of San, a white person with blue eyes, blue metal-rimmed glasses, an eyebrow piercing and long brown hair. San leans on their right arm and is holding their long hair in their left hand towards the camera; the hair obscures their right arm and cascades towards us. A blue-black tattoo wraps around San's left forearm. San looks beyond the camera; their expression is serious, thoughtful.

San Alland is a Glasgow-based writer, performer, interdisciplinary artist and curator. San’s work examines history, alternate realities, ‘qrip’ (queer crip) audiences and languages, anti-eugenics, class, and political mourning. San specialises in integrated disabled access, and remote and non-time-based participation.

San plays with a variety of media and genres: from avant-garde poetry, weird fiction and intermedia essays, to audio experiments and theatre-film hybrids. Winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award, San has published and presented extensively in Tkaronto, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as throughout Turtle Island, the UK and Europe. San strives towards disability justice, which includes clean air and Land Back.

Recent Work
A poem etched in dark brown into a pine picnic table, in close up. The title is Flow. The poem reads: "I have a memory like the ocean; everything thrown in always washes up. Only in a different order and the moon’s discretion.” Sandra Alland.

Fiction. San has a new story in Philadelphia’s beestung, “People Should Not Repeat Things Back To You” (text and audio). In 2025, Creative Scotland awarded San an Open Fund for Individuals grant, for the research and development of an experimental novel.

Podcasts. “Grief Offerings: (End of) Life Wishes”, a co-commission with Emilia Beatriz and Etzali Hernández (Rhubaba Gallery), was selected by Bespoken Media for Made In Scotland: The Best of Independent Scottish Audio. The ‘audio transmission’ airs again 16 April 2026, and has online transcripts.

Poetry. Two of San’s poems were etched into a wheelchair-accessible picnic table, curated by Carol Anne Judd (How We Roll, Williams Treaties First Nations territory / Cobourg, 2025). Sore Loser, co-written with Etzali Hernández, was part of the exhibition Zines Forever! DIY Publishing and Disability Justice (Wellcome, London, 2025). San was featured in Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent Poets (Bloodaxe Books, London, 2025).

Essays. For San’s Locked World Commission from Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, they created a filmic essay with creatively-integrated access, Writing From the Groin. During an online talk at Temporalities of Access (Language of Holes / Wysing Arts Centre), San screened excerpts from the project’s audio-described and BSL-interpreted video. Wordgathering recently featured San’s musings about Writing From the Groin, which involved 30+ disabled collaborators. 

Writing
Sore Loser is made from four pieces of A4 paper folded in half. It has a bright yellow piece of A4 card for the cover, and is stapled together. San dipped their finger into black ink to write the title of the zine in all caps. The ink has set with various tones, darker where their finger first made contact when I replenished the ink. Underneath the title we pasted the subtitle, "a chronic pain and illness zine on queer disabled grief", printed in Arial 22-point font. Beneath that are our names, hand-written by both of us in all caps, and pasted diagonally upwards to the right. The back cover has text that is replicated in the description of the zine.

San has published three poetry collections and two story chapbooks. Co-editor of the multimedia anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (with Khairani Barokka and Daniel Sluman, Nine Arches), San has also had six short plays produced, received international commissions for stories and essays, and written arts journalism for over two decades.

Fiction. San is a 2025 recipient of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals grant, for the research and development of a novel. San’s stories appear in the anthologies We Were Always Here (404 Ink, Edinburgh, 2019), Protest! (Comma Press, Manchester, 2017), Thought X: Fictions and Hypotheticals (Comma, 2017), The Write Stuff (Pearson Canada, 2013), and Can’tLit (ECW, Toronto, 2009). Other fiction publications include British Council’s Discover Project, beestung, Gutter, Extra Teeth, Cosmonauts Avenue, subTerrain, and The Deaf Poets Society. San’s first story chapbook, Here’s To Wang (Forest Publications, Edinburgh, 2009), sold out of two printings. In 2019, Proper Tales Press published San’s second chapbook of stories, Anything Not Measurable Is Not Real. Canada Council for the Arts awarded San a 2020 Digital Originals grant for Measurable, an audiobook and film-stories of the collection.

Essays. When awarded a Locked World Commission by Birds of Paradise, San created a filmic essay with creatively-embedded access, Writing From the Groin. During an online talk at Temporalities of Access (Language of Holes / Wysing Arts Centre, 2022), San screened excerpts from the project’s audio-described and BSL-interpreted video, featuring 30+ disabled contributors. San’s essays have been commissioned for Kenny Fries’s Disability Futures in the Arts (2020), a guest editorship at Disability Arts Online (Brighton, 2020), and the anthologies The Bi-ble Volume 2 (Monstrous Regiment, Edinburgh, 2019), Imaginary Safe House (Frog Hollow Press, Victoria, 2019), and The State of the Arts (Coach House Books, Toronto, 2006). San has also contributed to Feral Feminisms, Open Letter, Wordgathering, and Disability Arts International.

Poetry. San’s collections include Proof of a Tongue (McGilligan Books, Toronto, 2004) and Blissful Times (Book*hug, Toronto, 2007). San was a winner of the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award for their ‘collaboration’ with dictation software, Naturally Speaking (Espresso Books, Toronto, 2012). With Etzali Hernández, San received a 2021 Disability Arts Online commission to create Sore Loser: …on queer disabled grief, which has sold out of five printings and been featured in several exhibitions. San’s poems have been published widely, including in Zarf, make/shift, Literary Review of Canada, Anything That Moves, and the anthologies Versus Versus (Bloodaxe, London, 2025), Why Poetry? (Verve, Birmingham, 2018), #UntitledOne (Neu! Reekie!, Edinburgh, 2015), Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot (English PEN, London, 2012), Rogue Stimulus (Mansfield, Toronto, 2010), and Red Light (Arsenal Pulp, Vancouver, 2005). San produced two poetry-music CDs with Zorras: We Apologise For Any Inconvenience (2009), and Doctor Says (2012). In 2025, San’s poems were etched into an accessible picnic table (How We Roll, Williams Treaties First Nations territory / Cobourg).

Plays. Bermuda’s Waterspout Theatre produced San’s first play, The Man, in 1999. San’s monologues were published in Outspoken (Playwrights Canada Press, 2009). San’s work has been commissioned by The Theatre Centre (Body Geometry, Toronto, 2003), Hysteria Festival / Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Strange Attractors, Toronto, 2005), Oxford Playhouse with Soho Theatre (Found In Translation, Oxford/London, 2009-10), The Arches (Scratch, Glasgow, 2011) and Anatomy Arts (Equivalence, Edinburgh, 2016). Equivalence went on to further productions by Transpose (Barbican Centre, London) and Edinburgh Filmhouse / Film Hub Scotland.

For more info, visit Books or Publishing & Performance. For audio recordings, visit San’s SoundCloud.

Performance
An outdoor reading on a ramped concrete sculpture in front of grass and concrete graving docks. Left is San Alland, wearing jeans, a black shirt and jacket, red boots and a grey cap, holding a copy of the book Stairs and Whispers. San is seated on the ramp in front of a mic. To their right is Bea Webster, seated a metre away further up the ramp. Bea is using BSL and is behind a small amplifier. San and Bea look at each other. San is white and Bea is Scottish-Thai with long dark hair. A red polka dot facemask hangs from the mic stand. Captions read "I am your audience. Remember me, I am yours."

For three decades, San has performed original works at international festivals, theatres and galleries.

Live Literature. The 2021 Glasgow International presentation of Jacqueline Donachie’s STEP featured a short film of San reading their poem, Audience, with British Sign Language by Bea Webster. Other literary appearances include: Last Words (Roundhouse); Zarf; Jawdance (Apples & Snakes / Rich Mix); Fail Better; Inky Fingers; Neu! Reekie!; Caesura; and Debt Records Presents. Festivals include: Leith Late; West Port Book Festival; Edinburgh International Book Festival (Words Per Minute); Aye Write! (The Golden Hour); Ledbury Poetry Festival; Word on the Street; Bi+ Arts Festival; Canadian Festival of Spoken Word; VERSeFest; Ottawa International Writers Festival; Kingston Writers Festival; Mariposa Festival; and The Hillside Festival. From 1995 to 2016, San produced several CDs and performed internationally with poetry-music-film collectives including Stumblin’ Tongues, They They Theys, and Zorras. 

Plays and Hybrids. San’s multimedia work has been produced by Soho Theatre (London), Oxford Playhouse, Homotopia (Liverpool), The Arches (Glasgow), Waterspout Theatre (Bermuda), Scream Literary Festival (Toronto), and MayWorks Festival of Working People & the Arts (Toronto). San has appeared onstage in their plays on genderqueer and disabled poetics, Body Geometry (The Theatre Centre, Toronto, 2003) and Strange Attractors (Hysteria Festival / Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, 2004). As a 2016 Associate Artist at Anatomy Arts, San adapted one of their short stories into a theatre-film performance, Equivalence. Edinburgh Filmhouse and Transpose (Barbican, London) also presented the story-film-play, which featured integrated audio description, captions and BSL. In 2020, Canada Council for the Arts awarded San a Digital Originals grant to make an online version of Equivalence.

For performances, visit San’s YouTube. For audio recordings, visit San’s SoundCloud. For more info, visit Publishing & Performance.

Film & Photography
Still from San’s short film, Able. It’s an empty and long square-shaped walkway tunnel, with light and stairs leading up at the end. Captions read: "Are your eyes strong enough? Can you see? Can’t you see?"

San creates documentaries, film-poems, and experimental photography.

Film. San’s shorts have been screened widely, including at Tate Modern (Tweet-Me-Up!, London), Bristol Museum and Art Galleries (Concealed/ Reveal), ONCE/CentroCentro (VIII Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid), Entr’2 Marches (Cannes), Entzaubert Queer Film Festival (Berlin), Kinesthesia (London), Malmo Queer Film Festival, Queer City Cinema (Regina), TransLations (Seattle), San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, and Toronto Bi+ Arts Festival. Canada Council for the Arts awarded San a 2020 Digital Originals grant.

Filmic Collaborations. In collaboration with Ania Urbanowska, San created three film-poems for the multimedia anthology, Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back. In 2016-17, Brighton’s Viewfinder Project (SICK! Festival / Disability Arts Online) commissioned San to co-create (with Lisa Mattocks) five short documentaries about disabled and Deaf artists. LGBT History Month Scotland awarded San a 2013 Cultural Commission, for which San mentored artists in The Queer and Trans Deaf and Disabled Film Project, and directed the I’m Not Your Inspiration film series, which launched at Macrobert Arts Centre.

Photography. San has been solo or lead artist on photography exhibitions at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (sh[OUT]), Midlands Arts Centre (SHOUT Festival, Birmingham), Café Bernate (Toronto), insomnia (Toronto), and Pteros Gallery / Contact Photography Festival (Toronto). Group shows include Gallery 44 (Toronto), Gallery 1313 (Boundaries/Contact, Toronto), and Schwules Museum (Berlin). With Ajamu X, San was an inaugural artist-in-residence at Glasgow’s Trongate 103. 

For more info, visit Art & Curation. For samples of San’s filmic work, visit Films.

Curation & Consulting
A live film and theatre performance. On the far left, yellow captions are projected onto the wall. The say "Shit. Can any of you do a German accent?" To the right of the captions is a large video projection of nine disabled people holding colourful chapbooks. A Black woman is speaking. An onscreen caption reads: "You are in an elevator." Below the screen and looking up at it is a Chineses BSL interpreter. She has long hair, is dressed like a mermaid and sits on a table. To her right is San, who has their back to the camera as they talk to the people on the screen. San has short brown hair and leans on a black cane.

San curates, consults and speaks on interdisciplinary art and meaningful disabled access.

Multimedia Performance. In 2009, San co-founded Scotland’s accessible queer and trans art project, Cachín Cachán Cachunga! San’s Tkaronto multimedia curation includes The Queen West Art Crawl, The Theatre Centre, The League of Canadian Poets, and The Salvador Allende Arts Festival. In Scotland, San has curated: Faceplant, a zine fair and multimedia event for Forest Café (Edinburgh, 2010-11); LGBTQI+ Disabled & Deaf Pride (Glasgow, 2018); and the film-performance sensation Who’s Your Dandy? (Edinburgh Filmhouse, 2014 & 2017). For a 2020 commission from Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, San addressed inequalities of the pandemic response with the online event A Wake: on mourning, marking, and moving forward together.

Film. San has curated and designed accessible film programmes for BFI Flare (London), Glasgow Short Film Festival / Oska Bright Festival (Glasgow/Brighton), and Edinburgh Filmhouse / Film Hub Scotland. With Lisa Mattocks, San curated Unapologetic Self Portraits, a programme of films by disabled UK artists for SICK! Festival (Manchester) and Disability Arts Online (Brighton). San has presented on accessible film at Stirling University, This Way Up, and BFI NET.WORK. San collaborates on access for film artists; recent projects include audio description support for Raisa Kabir’s House Made of Tin, and AD scripting for Reel Borders, Now & Next, and Kerstin Schroedinger’s Song of the Shirt (all with Collective Text).

Visual Art. San curated Edinburgh’s SEEP series of accessible exhibitions. Other shows include: impresario Gallery (Cobourg); MayWorks Festival of Working People and the Arts (This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, Toronto); Midlands Arts Centre (SHOUT, Birmingham); and GoMA (sh[OUT], Glasgow). San has been commissioned for events on accessible arts at John Hansard Gallery (Voices in the Gallery / University of Southampton), Exceptional & Extraordinary (Research Centre for Museums & Galleries), and Wysing Arts Centre (Language of Holes / Art of Captioning). 

For more info, visit Art & Curation.