Clydebuilt is a 12-month mentoring scheme for emerging poets. Paired with an experienced poet-tutor, participants take part in group tutorials and one-to-one sessions to develop a portfolio of poems.
The Clydebuilt Verse Apprenticeship Scheme provides intensive support for poets of any age at an early stage of their writing careers, encouraging a greater dialogue between them and more experienced practitioners. Mentors have included poets such as Liz Lochhead, Gerry Cambridge, John Glenday, and Gerrie Fellows.
The scheme recruits no more than four poets who have yet to have a first full collection published (not counting pamphlet publication) and are not currently receiving any support with their development, e.g. not enrolled on an MLitt programme or fee-paying course. This mentoring will be given by an experienced poet-tutor over the course of 12 months, roughly from September 2023 to September 2024, and will consist of 5 group tutorials and 2 sets of one-to-one sessions which will be free to the participants. At these tutorials there will be a discussion of pre-submitted work with a mix of peer and tutor feedback. This will encourage participants to develop not only their own writing style but their ability to critique others. Over the year the participants will develop a portfolio of poems. Participants will give a reading of some of their resulting work along with their tutor at the end of the 12 months at a dedicated St Mungo’s Mirrorball event.
Eligibility
A panel will review the applications and decide whether any interviews are necessary. The chosen tutor/mentor will be involved in the final decision on the apprentices for their group.
To be eligible to be an apprentice you cannot be involved in any other writing course or receiving any other structured writing support as of September 2023 and you should not yet have brought out a full-length poetry collection.
Please note that some meetings might be online but in general participants may need to travel to Glasgow or an appropriate central belt location for meetings and events.
To apply, please provide the following in one Word doc:
● Full contact details
● A brief biography of your writing career to date
● 5 poems as typical examples of your work
● A statement of your short-term and long-term poetry goals
● An outline of what you hope to achieve from the support over the next 12 months
● A clear indication of the time commitment you are able to give both in terms of writing and attendance (online or in-person) at the tutorial programme (Sept 2023–Sept 2024).
E-mail your submission to Pip Osmond-Williams at edwinmorgantrust@gmail.com by 30th July.
Location: All Scotland
For further information, please contact edwinmorgantrust@gmail.com (Pip Osmond-Williams), or visit https://stmungosmirrorball.wordpress.com/2023/06/06/clydebuilt-16/
The deadline is Sunday 30 July 2023 at 23:55.