Two of the region’s best known poets and authors are to front up a creative writing project for young people in Kirkcudbright for a second year.
Stuart Paterson and Hugh McMillan earned plaudits when they joined forces with the town’s academy and Kirkcudbright Book Week Society to launch the writing skills initiative.
Now lead tutor Hugh, supported by fellow poet Stuart and the society, will reprise their work ahead of next year’s book week, which runs from March 4-10.
The welcome news came after the Holywood Trust, who part-funded the project for the first 12 months, chipped in with £2,525 for year two.
The cash will allow Hugh to organise workshops in the months leading up to Book Week 2024.
Hugh said: “We are delighted that this project has received funding to run into a second year and are very grateful to the Holywood Trust.
“Much quality work was developed in both poetry and prose in the first year.
“Some of the finest work was by young people who had not written creatively much, or at all.
“We helped them interpret aspects of their own experience in a creative way, as well as unleashing their imaginations, all of which made for a very worthwhile and rewarding project.”
Hugh added: “We plan to build on the success of year one over the next few months by broadening out the involvement to include school students of younger ages and involving writers from different disciplines, including spoken word and Scots.
“It’s envisaged that this would include up to 20 sessions, culminating in a performance and publication in Book Week 2024.”
Amy MacDougall, principal teacher of English at the academy, said: “Our senior classes loved having Hugh in to work with them last year and quite a few benefitted from being able to use their writing pieces in their folios.
“As teachers, we enjoyed having a fresh set of ideas in the classroom and have used Hugh’s advice to further our own teaching of creative writing.
“The book that Hugh published with our pupils’ work was very well received by the school community and pupils were proud to have their work in print.”
Local author John Dean, one of the Kirkcudbright Book Week Society members organising Book Week, said: “We are delighted to have received funding to take this project into a second year.
“It’s an inspiring venture and fits in well with one of our key aims, namely to reach out to the next generation of readers and writers.”
Holywood Trust director Karen Ward Boyd added: “The Trust was delighted with the outcome of the first project last year and is pleased to be able to support the creative collaboration for a further year, with Kirkcudbright Academy pupils, Hugh McMillan, Stuart Paterson and Kirkcudbright Book Week.”
The project’s first year included the production of Factory Fresh, a collection of poems and small fictions written by the students.
Finished work was exhibited at Kirkcudbright Library during Kirkcudbright Book Week 2023 with pupils filmed reading their work for the school’s and library’s websites.
The 2024 week will include more than 20 events featuring appearances from authors working in genres ranging from poetry, short stories, novels and non-fiction to children’s writing, crime fiction, romance and memoir.
Full details of the programme are available at www.kirkcudbrightbookweek.org
