Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 13th May, 2024
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Session 1: Writing the Book
In this first session of the week, writer and Creative Scotland Literature Officer Alice Tarbuck will lead the discussion around the beginning stage of any writer’s journey: turning your words into a book. She will be joined by authors Nadine Aisha Jassat, Kevin MacNeil, and Louise Welsh.
Below are a selection of questions and topics the conversation may cover. You also have the opportunity to let us know if you have any other themes or questions you’d like to hear the panel discuss in the booking form below, and there will also be a Q&A opportunity during the session.
Later sessions will also take a deeper diver into some of the topics below.
What genre is my book?
Plotting, planning, research
Making time
Beta reading
Professional services – what are they and do you need them?
Networking and visibility – how and why?
Funding – how can I fund my writing process, what support is available
Facing barriers in writing – support and help
About the Panel
Dr Alice Tarbuck is an award-winning poet and writer. Her debut non-fiction book A Spell in the Wild: a year (and six centuries) of Magic is published by Hodder & Stoughton. With Claire Askew, she is the co-editor of The Modern Craft, published by Watkins. She is a previous winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award for poetry, and recipient of their award for programming. She has taught Creative Writing at the Universities of Dundee and York, and is a Lead Reader for Open Book. Alice is currently Writer in Residence on the AHRC funded Print Matters project at the University of York. She splits her time between Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. (Photo credit: Jamie Drew) https://alicetarbuck.net/
Nadine Aisha Jassat is the author of Let Me Tell You This, and the verse novel The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them), and her next verse novel, The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, is released in May 2024. Nadine has taught and performed internationally and across media, including BBC Scotland’s The Big Scottish Book Club and Authors Live. She has been published widely, and features in popular anthologies such as Picador’s It’s Not About the Burqa (Shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year), Polygon’s The People’s City, and Bloodaxe’s Staying Human. Her work has drawn significant acclaim, with her writing for adults shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, a Herald Scottish Culture Award for Outstanding Literature, and winning a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award; and her writing for children longlisted for a UKLA Book Award, shortlisted for an Alexandra Palace Book Award, and more. (Photo credit: Danielle Watt) https://www.nadineaishaj.com/
Kevin MacNeil is a leading Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter, born and raised in the Outer Hebrides. His most recent novel, The Brilliant & Forever, was published to huge critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction of the Year Award. ‘The Brilliant & Forever 2022’, a literary festival themed around the novel, took place in front of Lews Castle in August 2022. Kevin recently edited Robert Louis Stevenson: An Anthology selected by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares. Kevin has won a number of prestigious literary awards. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Stirling. He invented Hai Cookery and lives with his rescue greyhound, Molly. http://www.kevinmacneil.me/
Louise Welsh is the author of ten novels including The Cutting Room, Plague Times Trilogy and To the Dogs. Louise has a ten-year practice in opera with composer Stuart MacRae. Their most recent opera, Anthropocene, originally commissioned by Scottish Opera, has enjoyed productions in the UK, Germany and Salzberg. She was co-director (with Jude Barber) of the Empire Café, an award-winning exploration of Scotland’s relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade. She has received numerous awards and international fellowships, including honorary doctorates from Napier University and the Open University. Louise is Professor of Creative Writing at University of Glasgow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Literature. (Photo credit: Julie Broadfoot)
This programme has been developed and funded by Creative Scotland, with support from Hawthornden Foundation with Society of Authors, and facilitated by Moniack Mhor. All sessions are free to attend. A Zoom link will be sent on booking and we will also send a reminder email on the day of the event.
Please let us know when booking if you have any access needs, or contact us on info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
If you would like to book all five panel sessions, please click here, or email us on info@moniackmhor.org.uk
Click here to go back to Programme overview
Bookings
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us on info@moniackmhor.org.uk or 01463 741 675 to be added to the waiting list.