Festival Encourages Young Scots to Raise Their Voices and be Proud
Learn to make films, write signs and create zines
Wigtown Book Festival’s programme for young adults will this year focus on enabling them to make themselves heard and to take pride in their voices. Workshops, panels and talks will be taking place over two weekends during the festival in Scotland’s National Book Town (25 September and 4 October).
Image credit: Matt Bialostocki
Events include Make a Scene, a crash course for budding filmmakers where they can learn about dialogue, storytelling, filming and editing with youth-led filmmaking group Next Take.
Dumfries Women’s Signwriting Squad will hold a poetry-inspired workshop on Signwriting and the Art of Lettering to explore the craft of traditional hand-painted lettering.
Christina Riley will hold an interactive environmental, nature-themed Zine Making workshop where young people (aged under 26) can learn to create their own zines.
The Young Adults programme will also feature a series of poets and authors such as actor and writer Manjeet Mann, who will be discussing Roar, an empowering novel of resistance inspired by Sampat Pal and the Pink Sari Gang from the multi award-winning author of Run, Rebel and The Crossing.
Julie McNeill, Wigtown’s Children’s and Young People’s Producer, said: “We have lots of hands-on events, author talks and other activities that encourage young people to take stock of the world and show them different ways they can express themselves. These include sessions where, in the space of a day, they can learn and use new skills, such as filmmaking. There are also poetry sessions, including showcases of Scots poetry, and sessions on creative writing.
“We want to enable young people to express themselves through their own authentic voices and to take pride in those voices.”
One example of where Wigtown Festival Company has already been putting these ideas into action is the Solway Schools Project, which has seen poet Hugh McMillan work with students at Annan Academy, Stranraer Academy, Kirkcudbright Academy and Douglas Ewart High School to write more than 2,000 lines of poetry about the sea and coast near where they live.
This has been put together into one giant poem. The Solway Schools Renga will be unveiled at a festival event where eight new Poetry Champions (two from each school) will read longer pieces that they have written.
Hugh said: “The Renga is a community poem, designed to be visual as well as to be read. It's not a static piece of art, it brings places and people together in a common experience of belonging.” Other YA events include:
- Annaliese Avery: Building Worlds. A world-building creative writing workshop with the keen astronomer and popular fantasy fiction author.
- Taylor Dyson: Poetry Showcase. A captivating hour of Scots language poetry and conversation with the National Library of Scotland’s Scots Scriever.
- Michael Mullen, Taylor Dyson and Mark Vernon Thomas: The Sunday Sessions. A showcase featuring three entertaining and dynamic poetic voices.
- Susi Briggs, Morag Anderson and Shasta Ali: The Sunday Sessions. A showcase featuring three entertaining and dynamic female voices.
- Rachael King and Scarlett Dunmore: Monsters, Myths and Horror Movies. Join New Zealand’s Rachael King (Song of the Saltings) – who is appearing on the country’s version of Traitors – and Scotland’s Scarlett Dunmore (How to Survive a Horror Sequel) in conversation about imagination, atmosphere and stories that keep us turning pages late into the night.
- Denise Brown and Kestral Gaian: Outsiders, Obsession and Betrayal. Join Ayrshire’s Kestral (The Boy From Elsewhere) and Kirkcudbright’s Denise Brown (No One Keeps a Secret) as they explore the mysteries we carry, and revelations that change everything.