Renowned Scottish playwright, novelist and performer, Alan Bissett, is set to run creative writing sessions in Barrhead next month.
The Falkirk-born writer, who now lives in Renfrewshire, will facilitate a series of free creative writing sessions with East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure, to capture locals’ experiences of the pandemic as part of the Year of Stories 2022.
Alan will support people who wish to put pen to paper and express their experiences of living through the pandemic at the free workshops, which will take place every Monday evening in May, following several successful sessions at Giffnock Library last month.
Alan said: “I am very much looking forward to starting the sessions at Barrhead Foundry and seeing what the good folks over there have to say about the pandemic.
"The run of sessions in Giffnock was hugely enjoyable, not only because discussing our creative writing in a supportive group setting is always liberating, but because it felt healthy and necessary for people to articulate and share their experiences of lockdown.
"It was very cathartic! So I hope budding writers in Barrhead come to the Foundry with their pens, and the key to their memory boxes, at the ready, and we’ll see what comes out.”
Scott Simpson, head of Library and Information Services at East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming Alan along to deliver these free creative writing workshops in Barrhead, following our Giffnock library sessions in March.
“We would like to extend our invitation for locals to come along and share their stories, develop skills and reflect on experiences in a group setting.
"Our Beyond 2020: Community Reflections project aims to allow people across East Renfrewshire to share their own lived stories of the pandemic during the Year of Stories 2022.
“As well as preserving the local covid story, the writing gathered from this project will be the inspiration for a photographic exhibition which will travel around East Renfrewshire venues later this year.”
The sessions take place every Monday in May from 7pm-8.30pm, with refreshments and materials provided. To book your free space email: libraries@ercultureandleisure.org
