Trading Tales: A Call for Writers

From Carolyn Yates

British Council/Mitchell Library - Trading Tales: A Call for Writers

Deadline for applications:  12.00 noon, Sunday 13th July 2014. British Council, in partnership with Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, are asking writers to explore the relationship Scotland and the Caribbean share as part of a programme of activity for the Commonwealth Games. Mitchell Library hosts a vast collection of original archival material relating to Scotland’s shared history with the Caribbean, forged in many ways in the 1750s by the North Atlantic Slave Trade. The Caribbean has dispersed archives and resources though not, as yet, coherent collections on this topic. 

The British Council and Mitchell Library are delighted to put out the call for two Caribbean writers from the Commonwealth to take up residence at Mitchell Library for three weeks this August, with a creative brief to explore and respond to the archive of original source material from the time period. One Scottish writer will then head to Trinidad in September for three weeks, one spent in the company of literature networks in Port of Spain and a further two of independent travel to visit dispersed resources across the Caribbean region and do the same. Writers will publically explore the relationship between the two places and the craft of weaving history into their stories. 

To apply for this opportunity, please visit the British Council website and download the Call for Expressions of Interest. Interested parties will need to send their CV and a 500 word statement explaining why they are interested in the opportunity and what particularly interests them about the relationship between the Caribbean and Scotland to UK_Residency@britishcouncil.org no later than 12pm on Sunday 13 July 2014.