We are delighted to be once again partnering with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at Edinburgh University to offer a writing Fellowship of up to 10 months to take place from January 2024 onwards, accompanied by a £12,000 bursary.

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

This Fellowship will be open to writers with an idea or story for an audience-focused, ambitious and entertaining new play that speaks to the urgent issues impacting on our lives now and into the future, contributing to the cultural voice.

• This Fellowship will be spread across a 10-month period, giving the writer the time, space and support needed to research and write the play whilst working around other commitments.
• Each Fellowship will be tailored to the writer's needs and availability but it is expected that the writer will work at the University on a regular basis – such as two or three days a week, or two weeks per month for example. Applicants do not need to be based in Edinburgh, but should be able to travel to IASH regularly.
• The Fellow will enjoy a private office at the University, as well as access to the university library and the Institute’s many other resources, including joining the community of other Fellows working at IASH during this time.
• The Fellow will receive dramaturgical support from the Traverse Literary Department, with the expectation that up to two drafts be completed during their residency, with another draft due at some point after the residency finishes (exact timelines to be tailored to needs of the project and Traverse Theatre). There may also be the opportunity for practical development periods working in collaboration with the Traverse artistic team and other creatives as required. The Fellow will be expected to contribute to IASH and Traverse Theatre events as mutually beneficial, giving at least one work-in-progress seminar and/or reading of the work to an invited audience.
• The bursary for this Fellowship is £12,000.

HOW TO APPLY

The deadline for applications is 22 September, and interviews for shortlisted applicants will be held in early October. The only eligibility criterion is that you must have had at least one professionally produced play to be considered. The application process is designed to be very simple: just send a short cover letter (no more than 2 pages) and a CV to iash@ed.ac.uk containing the following information:

• Why you are interested in the Fellowship.
• A short statement about you and your work.
• A short statement about the story or idea you want to use as a starting point for your play. We’re particularly interested in knowing what the story is you want to tell (even if it’s just a starting point), thematically how it might link in with the Traverse Theatre and IASH’s interests and, crucially, what your ambitions would be for an audience experiencing your work.

Previous IASH/Traverse Creative Fellows have included Peter Arnott, Apphia Campbell, Jo Clifford, Clare Duffy, Lewis Hetherington and Linda McLean. Plays originally commissioned by IASH include the multi-award-winning Blackbird by David Harrower, The Last Witch by Rona Munro and Still by Frances Poet.

More information about the Fellowship is available here.