Community

Work with P3 children and parents in North Edinburgh, and nurseries in Musselburgh, for Edinburgh International Book Festival:

Tollcross Community Portraits and Audio Trail for Edinburgh International Book Festival, working with photographer Alicia Bruce:

Current work:

I have been working as the Community Writer in Residence for The Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Citizen Project since 2018. In year four of this project I will be working with communities in Tollcross, Musselburgh and North Edinburgh.

I am currently also a mentor for The Scottish Book Trust, and a member of the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature programme. The programme works with communities to part-fund author residencies and author-led events such as readings or writing workshops in libraries, school classrooms, and other community settings. You can view my page in the author directory here.

Between 2012 and 2014 I was an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of the West of Scotland. I was a visiting lecturer on a number of occasions between 2014 and 2016.

See below for examples of previous work I have done with communities:

• The Citizen Project with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and community partners including nurseries, primary schools, arts centres, family centres, People First Scotland, Saheliya Women’s Group, and The Warblers.
• Takeover Day with P6/P7 pupils at the Baird Institute, Cumnock, developing creative writing based on the museum and its collection
• A course on writing radio plays and podcasting with a group of young asylum seekers in Glasgow with Ankur Productions
• Multi-generational writing workshops at Timespan, Helmsdale
• Key stages 3 and 4 judge for a National Storytelling Competition, part of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
• Pollockshields Book Group creative writing workshop and discussion
• Workshops and an original short story based on taped interviews with local residents, part of the ‘Dennistoun – our 2014 story’ project with Impact Arts
• A talk and discussion with students at Sussex University as part of the Sussex Writing Series
• Sid Chaplin Award 2021 judging panel

Research