With less than week to go until we open the doors of our August Festival, we wanted to highlight a special series of events taking place daily at 5pm in the Storytime Yurt, part of our Scotland’s Stories Now Project, supported by EventScotland.

Stories are a hugely important part of Scotland’s culture, and 2022 has been designated as Scotland’s Year of Stories. To celebrate we have been running Scotland’s Stories Now, a national participatory story-making project. Back in February, we invited people from all over Scotland to submit their own 500-word stories responding to the prompt ‘On this day’. What resulted was a fascinating portrait of Scotland in the here and now – we were blown away by the quality of the submissions.

Throughout the Festival, different contributors from around the country will be sharing their snapshots of life through the power of words. We are really looking forward to welcoming many of those who submitted work to share it at the Festival. As you will see from the list of readers and works below, the stories cover all sorts of genres and range from poetry, to fiction and memoir. Click on the links to explore their written submissions, and join us every day of the Festival at 5pm in our Storytime Yurt to hear these illuminating stories brought to life by the people who wrote them.

To find out more and to book tickets, head to the event pages of the website.

Claire Wilson will read New Companions

Zoë Stevenson will read The Angel’s Share

Helen Cormack will read On This Day

Helen Harradine will read Right To Roam

Kate Knox will read Apiphobia

Genderization by Ian Ferguson will be read by Jim Mackintosh

Jane Finnie will read Hey

Gordon Lawrie will read A 13 Minute Walk on Google Maps

David Pickering will read Lost

Raymond Miles will read 17th February 2022

Don't Look Down by Dougie Shepherd will be read by Book Festival host

The Last Wishes of Daniel McLevy by James New will be read by Ryan Van Winkle

Jan McKay will read Newborn

Louie Gardiner will read I Heard The News Today

Lee Montgomery-Hughes will read And Another Thing

Marianne Berghuis will read Dawn Chorus

Bernard Harkins will read On This Day 26 February 2022

Amy B. Moreno will read Five

Andrew James Paterson will read Beyond The Sea Wall

Halia Baillie will read The River's Edge

The Day the Glasgow Polis Saluted Mandela by John Stevenson will by read by a Book Festival host

Derek Hotchkiss will read A Need For Change

Daphne Loads will read Cultural Appropriation

Leela Gautam will read The Joy of Giving

Curtis Abbott will read Me and My Black Friend Broomhouse 1960s

Portobello Beach in August by Ruth Landreth will be read by a Book Festival host

Ruairidh M Gough will read A Wicker World

Lesa Ng will read Patriarchy Chicken with a Side of Racism Chips

Carolyn Mandache will read Scottish Humour

Malcolm Timperley will read Raise A Glass

Deborah Portilla will read Hogmanay

Debra Frances Murphy will read Beatrix and the Skiers

Leslie Stevenson will read The Island of Worms

Grace Murray will read A Magical Day in the Trossachs

David M. A. Francis will read Her Hands

Michael Stewart Cichla will read Glencoe

Peter Gellatly will read Little Tartan Beauty

On This Day by Carola Huttmann will be read by a Book Festival host

Grace Lochrie will read Clydebank, Lost in the Flames

Jude Arias will read The Bunker

Gracie Beswick will read The Seal

Kieran Sinclair will read Ancient Isle

Suzy Aspley will read A Selkie’s Tale

Sarah Coakley will read The Cailleach

Patricia von Holstein-Rathlou will read The Kirk

Eimear Stassin will read The Rising Whispers of Edinburgh's Witches

Katarzyna Popiel will read Still Alive

Portobello Beach 22nd July 2020 by Julia Carman will be read by a Book Festival host

Hamish Husband will read Scotland Versus England

Two Little Girls by Olivia Begbie will be read by a Book Festival host

Pernina Jacobs will read Threads

Also as part of Scotland’s Stories Now, earlier this year writers Andrew O’Hagan, Eleanor Thom, Ryan Van Winkle, Mae Diansangu, Roseanne Watt, Bea Webster and Siân Bevan collaborated with community groups across the country to collect further stories. In this very special event which is taking place on Saturday 20 August at 1-2pm, the following submissions to our open call will be shared:

Kath Lockett will read No Kid Sits Alone By Choice

Joan Barnard will read On This Day

The Big Thing Thit's Iverywhere by Joe Walsh will be read by Jackie Ross

Patricia Hunter McGrath will read A Geography of Rain

Alexandra Davey will read The Kittiwakes

Pernina Jacobs will read Threads

Charles Mugleston will read Flams O' Alba and Och

Jackie Ross will read On iss day bi Cedric e Flapper Skate

A short film will be shown, featuring Gordon Doherty’s piece Another Chance

We are delighted that these writers from our Open Call have agreed to be part of our showcase event, sharing the stage with several community groups, from Clackmannanshire and Ayrshire to Aberdeenshire and Shetland, all hosted by Scottish writing legend, Val McDermid. Find out more and book your tickets (pay what you can) here.

***

Scotland’s Stories Now is supported by EventScotland, as part of the Year of Stories 2022.