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....
Stories & Scran: A Special Citizen Event
25th August 2020It's not long now until our Stories & Scran event, an evening of food and entertainment, hosted by our Citizen Writers in Residence Eleanor Thom and Leyla Josephine. With live readings, audio recordings and short films created by Citizen...
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....
Muirhouse: Where Dandelions Go
17th December 2019We were thrilled to unveil these beautiful public art displays in north Edinburgh last week. The artwork comes from a short picture book created by our Citizen Communities Writer in Residence, Eleanor Thom, with P3 pupils from Craigroyst...
Leyla Josephine: Our New Schools Writer in Residence
9th December 2019Leyla Josephine has been appointed as our new Schools Writer in Residence for Citizen, the next phase of the year-round programme taking the Book Festival On The Road. Citizen is a long-term creative programme working in partnership wi...
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...
The Citizens of the Future
17th October 2019The Book Festival's first Citizen Schools Writer in Residence, the poet and novelist Claire Askew, summarises her inspiring experience working with three Edinburgh high schools to explore ideas of belonging and identity. The Citizen Scho...
‘A Place Where Reading and Writing Became Not Just Pastimes but Lifelines’
7th October 2019Our Project Manager Jess Orr shares her experiences taking Book Festival authors and events into some of Scotland's prisons this August, with sessions for male and female prisoners as well as special events enabling parents and their...
Citizen comes to the Book Festival
14th June 2019After a hugely successful event at North Edinburgh Arts in May, we're excited to bring the discussions, ideas, stories and passion of those who have been involved so far to the 2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival - the biggest...
Join in with Citizen @ North Edinburgh Arts
15th April 2019A feast of fun, food, and stories for all awaits as we hold a celebration of our Citizen programme, including loads of free activities and a special performance from two top musicians....
Citizen: Women of Wester Hailes
20th March 2019In this audio blog, Eleanor hears from the women of the Create group which meets at WHALE Arts in Wester Hailes, one of our Citizen partners. These women share their stories of home and community, food, family, work and more....
Citizen: Making Zines with Claire Askew
11th February 2019"When I needed to get to know them, I asked the three Citizen schools groups to make zines. I wanted to find out which issues and activities most interested the students; I wanted to give them a creative activity to do and ideally, one...
Meet The Hate U Give Author Angie Thomas
4th February 2019The author of the bestselling, award-winning The Hate U Give launches new novel On the Come Up in Edinburgh with the Book Festival....
Citizen: Meet Eleanor Thom
14th January 2019Our community writer-in-residence for Citizen, Eleanor Thom, introduces herself and her approach to this new creative programme - read on to find out how you can get involved in sharing stories and shaping events that will take place...