Stories of Scotland. . . Essaying stories of Home and Place

Stories are for everyone, and can be discovered in all kinds of environments, houses, lands and locations.

In this two hour Imagined Spaces workshop, we celebrate home and place through two texts by Kirsty Gunn – The Big Music, a novel set in the Scottish Highlands about family and family connections, and the shared house that is home to the characters within its walls; and a short story about memory and words, This place you return to is home.

In a highly creative reading and writing session, we will be using excerpts from both texts to ask the question: How can I make a home in words? Gunn will read a small section of her work and, together, we will both invite participants – singly or in partnerships – to generate writing that is imaginative and exciting, and that uses words and language to think about home and places – what we both call essaying!