…Eleven of our favourite tweets of 2016
I was delighted to join the SWC in October of this year, as the Public Relations and Media Officer. During this period we’ve all enjoyed seeing our twitter presence grow from strength to strength. As a team, we love nothing more than interacting with our online audience, letting you know who we are and what we do, as well as hearing and sharing some of the most exciting current news and events in the literary world. In this spirit, I’d like to leave you with a wee round up of my Twitter highlights as chosen from my time on board;
I’m sure we can all agree that a defining moment for Scotland’s literary scene this year was Graeme Macrae Burnet’s outstanding success in reaching the Man Booker 2016 shortlist with His Bloody Project.
We were very sad to learn of the death of the great Leonard Cohen last month. Whilst many fitting tributes were paid to his incomparable talents as a writer of poetry and lyrics, this has to be my favourite choice of words.
As a student of literature, I found Madeleine Bunting’s October article for The Guardian absolutely fascinating. It provided a wonderful insight into how the magic and mystique offered by the remote and the unknown is represented in our greatest literature, and reminds us that the influence of the islands and their people on our canon should never be overlooked or forgotten.
Glasgow holds a very special place in all of the team’s hearts. Not only are the SWC offices located on iconic Sauchiehall Street, it’s a city where most of us have either hailed from, or made ourselves a new home. We enjoyed some spectacular skies over the autumn months, this is my favourite photo taken one October afternoon; a rainbow arches over quintessentially Glaswegian tenement flats.
Amongst the retail frenzy of Black Friday, Oxfam Books Muswell Hill offered a wee reminder that bargain treasures can be found in their stores on any old day. We are big supporters of rehoming preloved books and giving a little something back in the process.
Being taken on as part of the team at the Scottish Writers’ Centre has been one of my personal highlights of 2016, so I love this picture of us working together to pull off yet another fabulous event.
The prospect of funding cuts and library closures have brought sorrow to the creative industries this year. Penguin shared Ray Bradbury’s thought provoking words, which so accurately convey the massive cultural loss we all face.
We want to order one of these for our next staff meeting!!! I think we could probably get used to English lessons at Peebles High School, we were blown away by this photo of a cake inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
In what has been a turbulent year to say the least, Salman Rushdie’s words have served as a poignant reminder of the power that literature can wield.
2016 has been an amazing programme of events for us. Linda Jackson’s Speakeasy at the end of last month hit capacity almost immediately. We feel so lucky to be able to welcome so many brilliant speakers and performers; here is self-proclaimed ‘Slam Winning Granny’ Finola Scott sharing some of her work (and wisdom) with us.
It was our honour to be involved in the judging process for Poppy Scotland’s ‘Letters Home’ national writing competition. All the entries from children up and down the country displayed tremendous energy and talent, and we were very proud of them all.
Words by Lucy Houghton.
