Literature Alliance Scotland — A New Chapter
Literature Alliance Scotland (LAS) is a membership organisation committed to advancing the interests of literature and languages at home and abroad. With more than 30 member organisations, we’re Scotland’s largest literary network for literature and languages, bringing together writers, publishers, educators, librarians, literature organisations and national cultural bodies.
With the funding we’ve been awarded from Creative Scotland, we’re able to deliver online our new, one-year programme of work, entitled ‘A New Chapter: To Meet the Times We’re In’ that will allow our members and the sector to rise to the ongoing challenges and work together more effectively to become a healthier, more robust and resilient ecosystem.
‘A New Chapter’ places Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at its heart with two interconnected programme strands of ‘upskill’ and ‘connect and collaborate’ supported by effective communications and advocacy. It will be more inclusive and accessible to engage more people and diverse voices, using improved digital communications to advocate for the sector and tell the stories of Scotland’s literature and languages.
The ‘upskill’ strand continues our flagship career development programme Next Level, offering two more mid-career literature professionals the “lifechanging” opportunity for mentoring, training and new connections tailored to their career goals. We’ll run a range of professional development and good practice learning sessions identified by members based on need and collaborate with our members and the wider cultural sector to develop an EDI toolkit hosted on our website and free to access.
The ‘connect and collaborate’ strand includes the continuation of our regular members meetings of rich learning and connection as well as our Sector Away Day in the Autumn. We’ll launch an open call for a new cohort of five (paid) writers for our Writers’ Advisory Group and commission two more writers or Scotland-based literary producers to respond to the evolving literary landscape and challenge our sector to make a change with our Literature Talks series. We’ll initiate a pilot peer-to-peer informal networking programme called the Buddy Project to help members improve relationships and dialogue to build resilience and boost health and wellbeing. Thanks to the Creative Scotland Open Fund, we’re able to help remove barriers to access for unsalaried writers and freelancers, by offering funded places on the Project as well as help with accessibility costs such BSL, childcare and other caring responsibilities as well as travel (if appropriate and safe).
