Who’s Who?

Speciality: Gaelic Short stories

Ailbhe plans to write short stories in Gaelic about the lives of young people, such as herself, to show it’s not an ‘ancient language’ but one that can still be used to express modern ideas. She enjoys the challenge of attempting to convey a character, a feeling or a moment in just a few hundred words.

Speciality: Novels

Andrew enjoys developing characters, describing situations and scenes, devising plots and most of all, exploring themes and messages that are important to him. Those include disability and inclusion, but also freedom, politics, depression, love, and our right to be as weird as we want to be.

Speciality: Performance Poetry

Beccie is writing poetry tackling themes important to her, such as feminism and other political issues. She cares about poetry because it strips down what you are trying to say to only the keywords that really matter and lets her voice and opinions be heard in a way that is fun to create.

Speciality: Performance Poetry

Devin plans to create inspirational pieces of poetry as well as developing as a poet and gaining the confidence to become a performer. He also wants to address important issues, such as mental health, through his poetry and use his voice to support, encourage and inspire other young people.

Speciality: Short Stories

Nicole is developing her short story writing skills. She appreciates the form’s ability to express complex themes quickly and is inspired by classic gothic horror novellas and also more modern abstract stories and thinks it’s vital that the arts are kept alive by the young people of Scotland.

Speciality: Illustration

Sara is creating a series of illustrations showcasing people, their emotions, and interactions with others and the world around them. She hopes to develop her skills for a career and also encourage others that writing and illustrating is a massive part of Scottish culture that should be kept alive.

Speciality: Novels

Skye reads a lot of YA contemporary and fantasy novel, so that’s what she’d like to create. She’d like to develop her writing skills and style as well as share her ideas with other likeminded people. She’s working on novel writing and is passionate about exploring creativity.

Alex Nye is an award-winning author. She has two new titles out this year with Fledgling, Arguing With the Dead, a historical novel about Mary Shelley, and When We Get to the Island… a middle-grade novel about friendship and being lost.

Helen McClory’s debut story collection On the Edges of Vision won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award.

Other works include a novel-in-flash, Flesh of the Peach,  Mayhem & Death, and a collection of microfiction about Jeff Goldblum called The Goldblum Variations. She lives in Edinburgh.

Jenny Lindsay is one of Scotland’s best known spoken word poets and performers. She has performed at festivals and events including Latitude, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali. She is the author of one full collection and two pamphlet collections of poetry, was the BBC Slam Champion in 2012 and was longlisted for the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship in 2017.

Jules Scheele is a non-binary freelance illustrator, comics artist and graphic facilitator based in Glasgow. They specialise in graphic storytelling and illustrations that bring a human touch to difficult concepts. Their recent work includes illustrations for the BBC, The Guardian, VICE, Open University, and Icon’s Graphic History book series, including Queer: A Graphic History and the forthcoming Gender: A Graphic Guide.

Lewis-born Maureen Macleod writes fiction and non-fiction and is the author of the first ever Gaelic travelogue, A’ toirt mo chasan leam, as well as the novella, Banais na Bliadhna.   An avid traveller, she is working on a book about meeting up with seventy-one cousins as she travelled across Canada.

Maureen is a Scottish BAFTA-winning television director who spent many years working on the BBC current-affairs programme, Eorpa.