The Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat
New Writer Retreat
Applications are now open for the Jura Malt Whisky New Writer Retreat!
For the first time this year, we are offering a new unpublished author the chance to follow in George Orwell’s footsteps and spend the whole of October on the Isle of Jura, writing, in the stunning surroundings of Jura Lodge, courtesy of Scottish Book Trust and Jura Malt Whisky, in association with The Times.
As part of the package, the recipient of the retreat will receive a bursary of £2,500 and sole use of the Jura Distillery Lodge for the whole month of October.
Deadline for application is Monday 9 June. For full details of the retreat package, eligibility criteria and application form, click here.
2008 writers announced!
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Scottish Book Trust and Isle of Jura malt whisky are working together to offer writers the opportunity to spend a month living and writing on the idyllic island of Jura. Each selected writer receives a month's exclusive use of the luxurious distillery lodge, a bursary and travel expenses.
In 2008 three writers are getting the opportunity to spend a month on Jura. We are pleased to announce the first two writers who will be carrying out the Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat in 2008 are Romesh Gunesekera and John Burnside. Information on the third and final retreat of 2008 will be announced in May.
Romesh Gunesekera was born in Sri Lanka in 1954 and has lived and worked in Britain since 1971.
His first novel Reef was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994 and the Guardian Fiction Prize. His second, The Sandglass, received the BBC's inaugural Asia Award for Writing and Literature and his third, Heaven's Edge, like his collection of short stories, Monkfish Moon, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Since 1996 he has been full-time writer. He has also been a judge for several literary prizes including the David Cohen Literature Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. In 2005 he received a National Honour for his writing from Sri Lanka, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London.
John Burnside was born in Dunfermline in 1955. He worked as a steel miller, gardener, labourer, computer software engineer, before becoming a freelance writer in 1994. He has has taught Creative Writing at St Andrews University since 1997.
His first collection of poetry was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. A later collection, Feast Days, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and The Asylum Dance was awarded the Whitbread Poetry Award.
Since 1996 he has also written prose works, including novels, short stories and a memoir, A Lie About My Father. His last novel, The Devil's Footprints, has been published around the world. Another novel, Glister, is scheduled for publication over the coming year.
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Jura is one of the most remote and wild of the Scottish islands. Famously, it is the place where George Orwell found inspiration to write 1984, one of the great books of the 20th century and of world literature.
The 2007 Retreats
Since its launch in late 2006, the Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat Programme has established itself as one of the best creative opportunities available to writers. In 2007 the Retreat was awarded to Will Self, Philip Gourevitch and Janice Galloway, who each took a month out writing and living in the Distillery Lodge on the beautiful and inspiring Isle of Jura.
Will Self
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Will Self is the author of three short-story collections, The Quantity Theory of Insanity (winner of the 1992 Geoffrey Faber award), Grey Area and Tough Tough Toys for Tough Tough Boys; novellas, Cock and Bull, and The Sweet Smell of Psychosis; and four novels, My Idea of Fun, Great Apes, How the Dead Live and most recently The Book of Dave. He has also written for a plethora of publications over the years and is a regular broadcaster on television and radio.
Will spent May 2007 on Jura. Read Will's essay, "Jura Duty" from The Sunday Herald
Philip Gourevitch
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Philip Gourevitch is Editor of the renowned literary magazine, The Paris Review and author of an award-winning book on the Rwandan massacres We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: stories from Rwanda (1998). In 2001 he followed this with A Cold Case, a brilliant true tale of crime and punishment in 70s Manhattan which prompted Elmore Leonard to comment ‘Gourevitch is an ace researcher and a knockout writer'. Philip has also reported from Cambodia, Burundi and Siberia and remains a staff writer on The New Yorker. He is currently completing a book on Abu Ghraib, due to be published in the U.S.A. in 2007 and in the UK in 2008.
Philip spent August 2007 on Jura and was joined by his wife Larissa MacFarquhar, a staff writer for The New Yorker.
Janice Galloway
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Janice Galloway is the author of three award-winning novels: The Trick is To Keep Breathing, Foreign Parts and Clara plus two collections of short stories: Blood and Where You Find It. She has also collaborated on an opera libretto, Monster, based on the life of Mary Shelley, and with visual artist Anne Bevan on Rosengarten, a text and sculpture exhibition.
Janice spent October 2007on Jura. Read about Janice's experience on Jura here.
BBC Broadcast and book
All three writers and Romesh Gunesekera are producing new work inspired by their time on Jura for a week of programmes on BBC Radio 4 to be broadcast during the first week of November 2008.
Meanwhile, as a further element to the Jura programme, Will Self and the great Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray will be collaborating on a limited edition Jura print, to be produced at Glasgow Print Studios.
The Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat was created by Scottish Book Trust in association with Whyte & Mackay, sponsored by Scottish Executive New Arts Sponsorship Awards, in conjunction with Arts & Business.
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For further information on The Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat please contact:
Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Co-ordinator
0131 524 0177 or caitrin.armstrong@scottishbooktrust.com
Taste Island Life
Scottish Book Trust and the Isle of Jura Distillery have also collaborated on Taste Island Life, a beautiful book featuring photography of the island and its people plus new work by Kathleen Jamie, Liz Lochhead and Alexander McCall Smith, inspired by short stays on Jura. The book also includes an essay on George Orwell and Jura by his biographer Sir Bernard Crick.
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This hardback publication is not available in the shops.
To purchase a copy at £16.95 (+ £2.95 p&p), please contact info@scottishbooktrust.com
Picture of Romesh Gunesekera by Barbara Piemonte
