The Citizen Map of Musselburgh
15th March 2021Explore our map and listen to audio recordings of creative writing by local Musselburgh residents, inspired by the town's sights and sounds....
A teenager’s pandemic
4th March 2021In this guest blog, Hollie from The Citizen Collective shares her view of what it's like to be a teenager living through a pandemic...
Our commitment to accessibility
19th February 2021The Book Festival is moving to a new site, but accessibility remains a key priority for the Festival in 2021 and in the future....
Reflecting on 2020: Community, Covid, and Courage
21st December 2020Our Communities Programme Director, Noëlle Cobden, reflects on her first 12 months leading our year-round work in Edinburgh, the Lothians and beyond. Read on for her highlights of a strange year, how we pivoted our communtiy work to...
Citizen Winter Warmer activities still available online
16th December 2020Catch up with all the fun from our Citizen Winter Warmer, follow the links to DrawAlongs, workshops, performances and tutorials from the weekend's activities....
Citizen Winter Warmer
1st December 2020On Saturday 12 December Edinburgh International Book Festival will be holding a day of online activities with authors, illustrators and talented local writers for our Citizen Winter Warmer....
Citizen Goes Online
4th November 2020Last week we launched The Citizen Collective, an online creative writing initiative for young people across four local high schools. We're also starting an online writing group for adults in North Edinburgh and Musselburgh...
Looking back: Spotlight on Citizen Events
21st October 2020In this blog, we highlight three Citizen events from the August 2020 Book Festival Online which examine what 'community' means in a time of crisis...
Precious objects inspire Citizen writers
9th October 2020Listen to the work of two of our Brunton Citizen writers, where they take precious objects as a starting point for a piece of reflective writing....
Where Dandelions Go: the film
1st October 2020Here we're sharing in full the story written by children and families from North Edinburgh, in collaboration with Craigroyston Primary School, North Edinburgh Arts, and our Communities Writer in Residence, Eleanor Thom....
“A citizen is…” – your responses in poetry
16th September 2020Discover a new poem, Citizen, created with ideas from our Stories & Scran participants, put together by Leyla Josephine...
Creative challenge: turning fridge magnets into poetry
8th September 2020We challenged our Citizen collaborators to create some poetry using 30 randomly-allocated fridge magnet words. Here we share Karen's response to the challenge and tell you how you can give it a go at home....
Enjoy Edinburgh International Book Festival from your own home
12th August 2020A spotlight on three Citizen events from our August 2020 programme, which aim to help us understand the meaning of community in the time of Covid-19....
Musselburgh’s Hidden Treasures – Making Stories from Stones
30th July 2020Discover a collection of stories in film, inspired by a game where families in Musselburgh hid and found 'Story Stones'. Created by Eleanor Thom....
Teaching Children to Fail
15th July 2020In this Guest Blog, Leyla Josephine reflects on her time as Schools Writer in Residence for Citizen....
Book Bags for Citizen
8th July 2020This week we have been packing and distributing book and activity packs to children and adults in Musselburgh and North Edinburgh....
The Keys to Our Lives – a Citizen Podcast
2nd July 2020In this podcast, two Musselburgh-based groups join together through poetry and discussion. We invite you to be part of the conversation by submitting your poems, songs and pictures exploring what the theme means to you....
Announcing Story Nation
2nd June 2020Find out about Story Nation, part of our Communities Programme which engages long-term with Prisons, Hospitals and Care Homes....
Musselburgh: Write Where You Belong!
14th January 2020Our Citizen Communities Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom is leading a series of 5 workshops involving writing, stories and crafts in The Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh over the next few months! We want to know about residents'...
Shelf Life
6th January 2020Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom reflects on the sharing shelf at North Edinburgh Arts - a community resource helping people in need access food and other essential items - as Christmas and a momentous General Election approach....
Five Moments from Citizen: Year One
30th October 2019Eleanor Thom, our fantastic Citizen Community Writer in Residence, reflects on a year working in and with Edinburgh communities. Leading our creative programme of conversations, writing and more, she's seen and heard stories from the...
