Free poetry workshop at Bannockburn Library

The Scottish Book Trust is inviting people to the workshop on May 7 at Bannockburn Library, in connection with the charity’s exciting new writing project, Secrets and Confessions.

Secrets and Confessions will run from March 30 – June 22, and in that time Scottish Book Trust wants to encourage the people of Scotland to confess their little white lies, dastardly deeds and hidden secrets.

People of all ages from across Scotland are invited to submit personal pieces of writing, which can be anything up to 1000 words long, about their own secret or confession. They can be written in a variety of different forms, such as a story, poem, song lyrics, a short play or sketch, a letter or even diary entry, and should be submitted via the Scottish Book Trust website.

All pieces of writing will be featured on Scottish Book Trust’s website and a selection of the best submissions will be published in a book, to be given out free of charge during Book Week Scotland later in November.

The workshop is intended to help writers of all skill levels who would like to submit a poem to the Secrets and Confessions project but may be struggling to find inspiration, or are looking for some advice.

Run by poet William Letford on Saturday May 7, between 10.30am and 12.30pm at Bannockburn Library, the workshop will provide a relaxed environment and the opportunity to work with an established poet to develop ideas and get poems down on paper.

Marc Lambert, director of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Scots are traditionally known as a people who like to keep their cards close to their chests.

“Secrecy, rebellion and dissent are woven into the fabric of our history, making it wonderfully dramatic and eventful. Our literature too abounds with confession, secret and intrigue, while our folklore and oral tradition brims over with the uncanny, the hidden and the magical.

“And yet the Scots are also a passionate and expressive people attached to truth, and often compelled, come what may, to risk everything and tell it like it is.

“Our campaign seeks to tap into this rich, often paradoxical, national impulse towards secret or confession.

“We want to provide the opportunity for modern day Scots to explore their psyche, confess some of their secrets, and to prove that despite reticent habits of their ancestors, they are a liberal and generous people at ease with themselves and their identities in the 21st Century. Naturally we also have great hopes that this will result in some juicy gossip we can all enjoy.”

To book a place on the free workshop, phone 0131 524 0170 or email frances.campbell@scottishbooktrust.com with your contact details and the details of the workshop that you would like to attend.

Submissions to the Secrets and Confessions writing project can be made online at scottishbooktrust.com. The closing date for entries is midnight on June 22.

The project is being run in partnership with the Gaelic Books Council, with stories from Marcas Mac an Tuairneir and Alison Lang.