Bursary to support writers with a residency at Brisons Veor
Thanks to a kind donation from Katrina Naomi*, a successful contemporary poet based in Penzance, in 2016 two writers were awarded special Writers’ Bursaries for residencies at Brisons Veor, a live-work studio space at Cape Cornwall. Katrina had previously enjoyed a residency at Brisons Veor and found this unique studio an inspiring place to develop her creative writing away from all the demands of her everyday life. She was so delighted with the experience that when she was left a family bequest, she decided to make a donation to enable other writers to have the same opportunity.
The bursaries are open to writers who are low-waged and working towards a collection of poetry or short stories, a novel or a play. Poet Louisa Adjoa Parker and flash fiction writer Amanda Mason were selected in 2016, and will take up their residencies this year.
Louisa plans to use the residency to complete a fourth collection of poetry, one which explores her experiences of adolescence based on her diary entries from the Eighties. “As a young woman of mixed (Ghanaian and White English) heritage, I struggled to fit in and had a very fragmented sense of identity. This collection will explore life in Devon in the 1980s for someone from a BAME background”. Amanda Mason writes flash fiction, short stories and is currently working on her third novel. An admirer of Daphne du Maurier, Sarah Waters, and Phil Rickman among others, she is interested in producing work that builds upon a sense of dread and the uncanny in the commonplace.
Two further bursaries for writers will be made available in 2018. Please see Call for Applications below:
Brisons Veor is delighted to announce a call for applications from writers for two fully-bursaried places for a week’s residency in West Cornwall in 2018. The bursaries are open to writers who are low-waged and working towards a collection of poetry or short stories, a novel or a play. The Brisons Veor application form can be downloaded at www.brisonsveor.org.uk and emailed to admin@brisonsveor.org.uk with the words ‘writers’ bursary’ in the subject line.
Applications should be accompanied by a sample of your work. Either one chapter of a novel, three poems, a short play or one act of a play, OR a short story. Applicants’ project proposals should be detailed and specific (up to 100 words) and they are asked to explain their financial situation and their need for a bursary (no more than 50 words). Applications will be treated as confidential and should arrive by 26 August 2017*. All applications will be read by the poet Katrina Naomi and a panel of the Brisons Veor trustees. Successful applicants will be informed by 30 September 2017
*Follow the journey made by Katrina and artist Tim Ridley at Brisons Veor in 2016 www.katrinanaomi.co.uk