A project that supports young authors in the Kirkcudbright area of Dumfries and Galloway is to extend into its third year after funding was secured for initiatives that include a literary festival run by students.
The project, which helps young people in Kirkcudbright to develop their creative writing skills by working with authors, is a collaboration between Kirkcudbright Academy, lead tutor the author Hugh McMillan, pictured here, his team of writers which this year will include award-winning young poets Nazaret Ranea, Eleanor Tennyson and Lydia McMillan, and Kirkcudbright Book Week Society, which runs the town’s annual literary celebration every March. The next one will run between March 3-9, 2025.
The Holywood Trust, which provided funding for the first two years, has now agreed a further £3,500 to allow the work to develop even further. The Trust, founded in 1979, is a charitable organisation supporting young people aged 15-25 through grant-giving. It awards grants to individuals, groups of young people, and organisations creating opportunities for young people in Dumfries and Galloway.
In the project’s first year (2023), 17 hour-long creative writing sessions were held with four classes at the Academy, reaching 54 pupils, and year two expanded to involve far more students of younger ages and writers from different disciplines, including spoken word and Scots.
Outcomes have included the production of annual anthologies of poetry and prose, exhibitions of the students’ work at Kirkcudbright Library during Kirkcudbright Book Week, and recordings of students reading their work for use on websites.
The third year will see further workshops, again allowing the students to produce work and a publication, and will involve more authors, including spoken word specialists and young writers.
Guest authors at the Academy’s literary festival, for which a date has yet to be set, will include Denise Brown, an author living in Kirkcudbright who writes Young Adult murder mysteries – her second book It All Started With a Lie was published by Hashtag Press in February 2024. She also works freelance as a ghost writer and editor and has written 15 books, including post-apocalyptic thrillers and cosy mysteries.
Amy MacDougall, Principal Teacher of English at Kirkcudbright Academy, said: “This project has increasingly proved its value in increasing the confidence and creativity of students and I am very much looking forward to the new developments this year.”
Lead tutor Hugh McMillan said: “Thanks to the Holywood Trust, this project goes from strength to strength, and this year I am especially thrilled at the participation of young writers like Nazaret, Lydia and Charlotte, as well as the prospect of the students taking more responsibility themselves to organise an innovative Schools Lit Fest.”
Kirkcudbright Book Week Society Chair Chris Walker said: “Encouraging the next generation of writers is one of the important themes of Kirkcudbright Book Week and we are delighted that this funding will allow us to expand the project.”
Author Denise Brown, pictured here, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be involved in the literary festival at Kirkcudbright Academy as part of Kirkcudbright Book Week, and am looking forward to discussing all things YA (Young Adults) with the students.”
Additional funding for the Young Writers project will come out of the National Lottery Community Fund award made to the society in August 2024.
Kirkcudbright Book Week 