My Blog From Edinburgh City of Literature's Writer's Room

By Stuart Johnstone

It's important to us at Edinburgh City of Literature to help writers and creatives working across Edinburgh to use our opportunites to support ther development, craft and projects. Edinburgh-based crime writer Stuart Johnstone was selected for the Writer's Room pilot. You can read below a blog entry from Stuart on the benefits of applying for the programme.

Stuart Johnstone

29 January 2025

Ach, throw your hat in the ring, I told myself.

It’s part of the job of being a writer, to be scanning, seemingly constantly, for opportunities. What agents are opening their lists? What publishers are accepting manuscripts? Grants, bursaries, jobs that are flexible enough to fit around writing projects and, yes, residencies. You form your message, attach the relevant document, and then send it scurrying from your mind.

In recent years I’ve scratched this last one from my list of opportunities to seek. Parenting sadly prevents traveling to far-flung places for anything more than a few days. I don’t recall where I saw the advert for the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust Writer’s Room programme, but how glad am I that it caught my eye. This was a residency I could apply for without mind-bending logistics to contend with.

Like all of the lovely and exciting things that have happened in my writing career, it arrived unassumingly into my email. It’s funny how much these messages resemble the far more common or garden rejection. The eyes of a writer do not read such messages beginning to end, but rather you scan for words and phrases such as “unfortunately” “regret to inform” or “sadly”; you then close the email and move on with your life. This was one of the rare ones, though; reading “pleased to inform” sends you back to the beginning, to take this particular message in, fully.

I would recommend this opportunity to all but the claustrophobic. Climbing that tiny spiral stair to take my place in my garret each day was a thrill and a reminder of my good fortune. I had time and space to work, and I worked. Looking up the hill of the Mile towards St Cuthbert’s, I made good progress on the new novel. I will remember with great fondness where chapters ten to twenty were born.

Interested in the Writer's Room programme?

If you are interested in applying, you can access more information on the current open call on this link.