Kirkcudbright Book Week Society has been granted £4,750 to support the town’s annual literary celebration which it organises.
The society is among a number of organisations celebrating the latest round of funding awards from the National Lottery Community Fund for activities that will bring people together and help communities thrive.
Its successful application was based on the organisation’s work to increase access to events during Book Week, the next one of which happens between March 3-9, 2025.
A significant part of the funding will help develop the Society’s partnership with Kirkcudbright Library, run by Dumfries and Galloway Council, and local organisation Commingled and its Creative Director, the children’s writer and storyteller Heather Taylor, pictured here.
The partnership, which is tailored to benefit children with additional support needs, began during the Book Week held in March 2024 with a multi-sensory storytelling event. Heather worked in collaboration with children’s author and Scots language specialist Susi Briggs, to adapt Susi’s latest picture book to create an immersive and inclusive experience that celebrated the Scots language and was staged at the library on World Book Day.
The partnership aims to develop the idea with particular emphasis on increasing the participation of young people with additional support needs (ASN) and profound learning and multiple disabilities (PMLD) in events staged in the run-up to, and during, Book Week.
Heather Taylor said: “We are thrilled to collaborate once again with Kirkcudbright Book Week. This exciting project will empower readers of all ages, providing them with the opportunity to not only experience the festival but also to create and share their own sensory stories.”
Some of the grant will go towards a separate project featuring young writers from Kirkcudbright Academy, which is a collaboration between the Academy and lead tutor, and award-winning author, Hugh McMillan, and Kirkcudbright Book Week Society. Now in its third year, the project has includes workshops taken by authors and results have included exhibitions of the students’ work at Kirkcudbright Library and the publication of an anthology. Students will also organise their own literary festival at a date yet to be confirmed.
The third element which will benefit from the Community Fund award is work by the Society to stage a number of free and reduced-price events during Book Week 2025 in order to attract people who might not normally attend literary events.
Book Week Society Chair Chris Walker said: “One of big themes of Kirkcudbright Book Week is to encourage as many people as possible to take an interest in literature, some of whom might not have considered attending a live event before.
“This award from the Community Fund is welcome because it allows us to explore ways of widening the access to events connected to Book Week, and that is an exciting prospect.”
Kirkcudbright Book Week 