Biography

Born to working-class parents in Glasgow, Anton originally embarked on a history degree before deciding his true talents lay in a more practical setting. He won a place to study acting at the prestigious Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Determined to be versatile as a creative, he has worked across disciplines as an actor, live art producer, journalist, podcaster, and writer for an array of organisations.

Dedicated to elevating voices from the edges of society, Anton’s MLitt degree in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow has acted as a launchpad for the ongoing consolidation of this passion. He continues to work across creative mediums to tell stories, which strive to offer clarity to the chaos of human existence.

How the Award Helped

His Dewar Arts Award helped Anton continue his Masters Degree studies at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

Biography

Hailing from Inverness, David is a writer of determination and distinction.

Moving from the Highlands to Glasgow in 2012, David applied for the HNC Professional Writing Skills course at City of Glasgow College.  Despite his lack of prerequisite qualifications, David’s impressive portfolio earned him a place on the course.

Having already self-published two books of poetry, David completed a third during his time on the course. He also performed a daring and spontaneous piece at the Creative & Cultural Skills Scotland annual conference, and won the class prize – awarded annually to the most outstanding student.

David went on to take an HNC Practical Journalism course in 2014 and was equally successful, contributing several pieces to publications and impressing with his versatility. In the meantime he continued to develop his career as a writer of prose and poetry, and was published in several respected poetry outlets.

David is an extremely capable journalist and an excellent prose writer, but it is his poetry that stands out. He creates work that rises above his peers and demands to be noticed.  In 2015, his prodigious talent was recognised by the University of Glasgow, who offered him an unconditional place on their illustrious M.Lit course, even without a degree level qualification.

David’s work has been published in Glasgow Review of Books, The Grind, ODOU, The High Flight and The Speculative Bookshop, amongst others. In 2016 he was shortlisted for a Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Award. 

“His poetry is sometimes rustic but never twee, youthful and contemporary without being naïve or following trends, and most of all extremely evocative.” John Clarke, Lecturer, City of Glasgow College.

How the Award Helped

Biography

Allan is a talented writer with enormous potential. In 2010, his work was selected from hundreds of applicants to appear in an anthology of stories entitled The Year of Open Doors. The book was edited by renowned author Dr Rodge Glass, who sought to showcase the best in young Scottish writing. He describes Allan as “one of the finest young literary voices in Scotland”.

To develop his skills, Allan enrolled on the Creative Writing Masters Degree Course at Strathclyde University. In 2012, he released his debut collection of short stories, Wasted in Love. This received much critical acclaim, with broadsheet newspapers and established authors praising Allan’s technical ability, honesty and originality. The book was shortlisted for the Scottish Book of the Year 2012.

Based in Glasgow, Allan runs workshops and performs regularly at spoken word events.

“Allan takes risks with his writing. He does not opt for commercial, feelgood material, but instead explores the complexity of human relationships, in all their darkness and ambiguity. His use of language is judicious, sharp and powerful; he has already developed a disciplined editorial eye. He balances humour with shock, warmth with intensity, and as a result Wasted in Love has proven to be one of the best collections of short-stories published in Scotland in the last few years.” Alan Bissett

How the Award Helped

Since the Award

Shortlisted for the Scottish Book Trust Awards 2012

Review of Wasted in Love in The Scotsman

Biography

Born in Sutton Coldfield, Elisabeth studied English Literature at Harris Manchester College, Oxford’s smallest and most progressive college for mature students, where she won an English Literature scholarship. In 2004, Elisabeth won the McDonough Prize and graduated in 2005. After leaving University Elisabeth focused on writing short stories, with the aim of pursuing a postgraduate creative writing course.

Elisabeth moved to Glasgow and in 2008 joined the competitive MLitt in Creative Writing at Glasgow University. She co-edits the Glasgow University online creative writing journal www.fromglasgowtosaturn.com. In 2009, she founded the Glasgow Student Short Story Prize, with the aim of supporting and promoting other new writers across the city.  The prize is guest judged by A. L. Kennedy, and an anthology of the winners, edited by Elisabeth, will be published in mid August.  To find out more: http://glasgowstoryprize.blogspot.com/.

Elisabeth has a blog at iluvwords.blogspot.com about her year of reading dangerously, “an impossible challenge I set myself, to read a book a day, for a year …”. Ultimately she plans to expand this blog into an online journal for more experimental writing.

While a postgraduate, Elisabeth has had a short story published in the annual showcase of the best in Scottish contemporary writing, New Writing Scotland.  ‘Green Line’ appeared in the 2009 anthology In the Event of Fire.  She will also be published in the upcoming MLitt anthology Hunger, with another short story, ‘Moment of Silence’. Elisabeth is considered to be a talented writer with great potential. As well as writing, Elisabeth designs jewellery and keeps a photographic and design blog of her work, for more information see elisabethingram.blogspot.com.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award helped towards the costs of the MLitt.

Since the Award

During a successful year in which she graduated with an MLitt with Distinction, Elisabeth founded the first ‘Glasgow Student Short Story Prize’ which was judged by A L Kennedy. An anthology of the winning entries was published in paperback and online.  She continued to co-edit the online Glasgow University creative writing journal ‘From Glasgow to Saturn’. In 2010 Elisabeth was runner-up in the prestigious Curtis Brown Prize.  She continues to write and be published.