Literature in Scotland: A New Approach continued

Here's the rest of what I proposed at the end of last month to the Literature Working Group set up by the Scottish Government . Your thoughts on this and the last post would be most welcome.

Literature in Scotland: A New Approach continued

Ideas, Essays and Intelligent Debate

One area in which Scotland is weak is in the writing and publication of well argued analytical books and collections of essays on a range of issues which encourage intelligent debate. Most academic books are over specialised and too expensive to serve this function. There should be increased financial incentives to publishers specifically earmarked for the publication and marketing of more of these books to raise the level of awareness amongst a wide readership of important issues of a cultural, environmental, political, economic and social nature.

Literary Magazines, Newspapers and Digital Publications

Literary magazines, newspapers and digital publications are important as outlets for publication by new and established writers and as indicators of a stimulating and healthy literary culture. They are also important as places where debate and discussion of all things literary can and should take place. However, current funding is insufficient to sustain and develop these media and tends to favour well established journals at the expense of new ones.

The current level of funding of literary magazines and digital publications should be at least doubled and be allocated to both existing well established magazines and new ones with well thought out proposals for publication and development. New magazines should not have to publish four issues before being considered for funding. The admirable efforts of journals such as Northwords Now and Textualties in print and digital form should be recognised and encouraged by significantly improved levels of funding. There should be greater funding generally for digital publications which publish high quality work of all kinds including essays and articles and which encourage intelligent debate on all things literary.

Newspapers are suffering from declining sales and are cutting costs and, in some cases, the space given to book reviews. Generally speaking, they have failed over many years to offer sufficient outlets for creative writing of all kinds and, in view of these long-term trends, it is unlikely that these editorial decisions will change. However, they could be given some financial incentives to publish online more poems, short stories, essays and non-fiction articles. Online local newspapers like For Argyll and The Arran Voice which do an excellent job with very limited resources should be properly funded to do this too and develop their valuable work.

Northings, the HI~Arts Journal, is a major source of cultural news and views in the Highlands and Islands and should receive increased funding to expand its work. Its parent body HI~Arts should receive greater funding, in particular to facilitate its writing development coordination which is doing great work through its mentoring scheme and undertaking other initiatives to develop new writers in the area and throughout Scotland generally.

There is precious little attention paid in the England based newspapers and reviews to work published in Scotland, unlike the Scottish Review of Books. It deserves to be given improved public funding to support its work and should be encouraged to feature more essays and analysis related to books and authors in Scotland.

Festivals and Other Events

The growth in the number of Book and Arts Festivals in recent years is a most important and encouraging development for writers and publishers, and is benefits book sales and the profile of literature. However, the invited authors often seem like more of the same established names and media celebrities and Festival directors should be encouraged to feature less well known writers based in Scotland more than they currently do.

The Atlantic Islands Festival on the Isle of Luing in July 2009 (which I was involved in organising) featured musicians, visual artists, ornithologists and botanists as well as writers and was a critical as well as financial success. The crossover connections made between these artists and scientists can often be very valuable to a writer’s development. Funding should be made available for these different kinds of cross- cultural events as well as those already established and new literary festivals.

General Observations

There is a continuing need for collaborations between writers, composers, musicians, visual artists and others, and some interesting and valuable work has come out of these. This should be recognised by increased funding to enable this work to continue and expand.

Currently some writers are discouraged from applying for funding for their work by the processes they have to go through to obtain it. The process of application and the application forms themselves should be simplified as much as possible to make it easier to apply.

These proposals would go some way towards addressing the underfunding of literature in Scotland in comparison to other arts provision and other areas of UK and Scottish Government spending. Part of the justification for this change to Scottish Government spending priorities is that literature provides a strong indicator of Scotland’s state of well being and of how it is regarded internationally, and that with this kind of financial and political encouragement the quality of our literary output and our international standing can improve.


So that's what I sent in, let's see what the Working Group has to say about these and other issues. One thing is absolutely clear, leaving the future of writing to the tender mercies of the free market can only lead to even more 'fast food' books and endless cultural dumbing down. The current system of funding just won't do faced with what's happening to literature and intelligent thought - a bold new approach is badly overdue.