Stories

Spot-lit Project Develop Literary Tourism Business Exchange Programme

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Spot-lit Partner, The Western Development Commission faciliatated the first Literary Tourism Business Exchange Programme (virtual) meeting on November 4th 2020.

Project Partners and organisations participating in the Literary Product Innovation Programme (LT-PIP) acrosss Ireland, Northern Ireland, Finland and Scotland have come together to develop a literary tourism-related cluster giving the businesses an opportunity to network, transfer knowledge and support each other in the development of Literary Tourism.

Businesses/organisations will also jointly and individually have the opportunity to promote their literary products through the Digital App being developed by Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. The digital platform (App) will serve literature associations, organizations and SME’s to digitalize and create content for literature tourism and provide related products and services.

In this first cluster meeting, organisations from Ireland and Finland spoke about the ongoing development of their Literary Products and Services, destination experiences, tourism product development and the Literary assets in each region. Find out more about these exciting developments below.

Literary Products Being Developed in Finland

Literary Products Being Developed in Ireland

Five Irish Projects Participate in Spot-lit Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme

  • Tertulia Bookshop, Co. Mayo
  • Mayo Celtic Holidays Ltd./Kiltimagh Tourism Association
  • Mayo Celtic Holidays Ltd./Kiltimagh Tourism Association
  • Yeats Thoor Ballylee Development CLG
  • Yeats Thoor Ballylee Development CLG

Literary Products Being Developed in Northern Ireland & Cavan Monaghan.

Spotlight on Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme in Northern Ireland & Cavan and Monaghan.

  • Iniskeen Enterprise Development Group – Patrick Kavanagh Literature Project
  • Droimnín Destinations
  • The Light Theatre Company – Bloomsday Festival
  • Todd’s Leap Activity Centre –Farrell’s Lanavoye
  • Lurgan & North Armagh George Russell Festival Society (GRFS)
  • Armagh Rhymers – Digital Guidebook
  • Strabane Business Improvement District – Flann O’Brien Literary Programme

 

Nine Dumfries & Galloway Businesses take part in Spot-lit Programme

 

  • Galloway Cycling Holidays
  • The Bookshop Band
  • Ellisland Farm
  • Craigmount Bed and Breakfast
  • Mostly Ghostly Tours
  • Dark Sky Pages
  • Dark Sky Pages
  • Webber’s Wildlife Services
  • The Stove Network

Next Cluster Meeting scheduled for January 2021 where we will hear from partners and organisations in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

International Speakers for Spot-lit Partner Meeting

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‘Strategic opportunities and challenges for literary tourism in a post pandemic world

The session is to commence with two speakers. Spot-lit project partner Teija from Lapland UAS will deliver the introductory presentation on ‘Scene setting’ and during that she will set out the impact of the pandemic on European and global tourism. During this she will draw on some of the findings by LUAS in their work on baseline research and the transformative guide in Spot-lit. This will be followed up by Dr Joseph Sobal, University of South Wales, who will challenge the partners on responding to the opportunities and challenges being created by the pandemic for our project, and also for the various partner organisations.

’Teija Tekoniemi-Selkälä, M.Sc. (Econ), is a Senior Lecturer in Multidimensional Tourism Insitute in Lapland Universitiy of Applied Sciences. She has been involved in tourism industry for 30 years. She has been working both in private and public sectors. In the 1990ties she worked as a project manager and a consultant in tourism business development. Since 1999 she has working as a Senior Lecturer in Lapland UAS. Besides curriculum design, mentoring Bachelor Thesis and teaching  in the international English Degree Programme of Tourism, she acts/has acted as a tourism expert in manifold R&D&I activities in partly EU-funded projects, which have covered topics e.g. literary tourism, destination experiences, tourism product development and foresight. Teija Tekoniemi-Selkälä is also a private entrepreneur (as a hobby), since 2015 she has been a co-owner of a private kindergarten in Rovaniemi.

Joseph Daniel Sobol, Ph.D. is a Professor of Storytelling in the Faculty of Creative Industries in The University of South Wales. From 2000-2017 he was Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Storytelling at East Tennessee State University. His dissertation on the American storytelling revival was published in 1999 by the University of Illinois Press under the title “The Storytellers’ Journey: An American Revival.” He is a co-founder of the Storytelling in Higher Education Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network, and a co-founder and co-editor of the journal Storytelling, Self, Society: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies.

Followed by a discussion between the partners on how we might develop the Spot-lit project and our participating SMEs and LT stakeholders in effectively responding to the challenges and opportunities of these times.

At Home With Irish Arts Center: 12th Annual PoetryFest

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The 12th annual—and first digital—festival, with curator Nick Laird convening five poets from Ireland and North America for a virtual celebration of verse.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
8pm EST / 1am IST
Favorite Irish Poems
Emma Dabiri, Ailbhe Darcy, Kit de Waal, Terrance Hayes, Nick Laird, Ada Limón, Belinda McKeon, Paula Meehan, Graham Norton, Katie Raissian, Leanne Shapton and Zadie Smith, plus Ciaran O’Reilly and Charlotte Moore of the Irish Repertory Theatre, John Waters of Glucksman Ireland House, Brendan Costello of Irish American Writers & Artists, and George Heslin of the New York Irish Center
REGISTER >

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Opening Reading
1pm EST / 6pm IST
Ailbhe Darcy, Ada Limón, and Miriam Gamble
Introduction: Nick Laird
REGISTER >

Desert Island Poems
2pm EST / 7pm IST
Paula Meehan and Terrance Hayes
In conversation with Nick Laird 
REGISTER >

Closing Reading
3:15pm EST / 8:15 IST
Paula Meehan and Terrance Hayes 
Introduction: Nick Laird
REGISTER >

 

Courtesy of IrishArtsCentre

Literary Tourism Sector – Survey

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The Spot-lit project is carrying out research to help us to gain deeper knowledge of the effects the global pandemic has had on companies involved with literature tourism in the project regions as well as their future prospects.

We kindly ask you to spend approximately 15 minutes on the survey. By answering the questions you will help us to gain an individual understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry in your region. We appreciate your help and assistance.

The information we collect will be used solely for the purposes of the project. Individual contributions will be kept anonymous throughout. The project adheres to a strict GDPR Policy.

ACCESS SURVEY

 

 

 

Anthology Magazine Short Story Competition

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Writers of short fiction are invited to enter the Anthology Magazine Short Story Competition.  Established to recognise and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication, it is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Stories submitted must be on the theme of ‘Memories’ and not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words. Writers can submit as many entries as they wish.

It is not a requirement, but is advisable to refer to Anthology Magazine or purchase a copy before submitting your work, so that you can see the type of material we publish. Subscriptions and single copies are available to purchase through the online shop.

The winner will receive a €500 cash prize and the chance to see their work published in a future issue of Anthology.

The winner will also receive a one year subscription to Anthology Magazine

Submission Deadline & Entry Fees: 
Early Bird: 30 April 2021 – €10 per poem
Deadline: 31 July 2021 – €15 per poem

 

Terms and Conditions

  • To enter, submit an original, unpublished short story, written in English on the subject of ‘Memories’ with a maximum of 1,500 words.
  • Entry fee: €10 per story if entered by midnight on 30 April 2021, or €15 per story if entered by midnight on 31 July 2021.
  • There is no limit to the number of entries you can submit.
  • There is no age limit.
  • The closing date for receipt of entries is Saturday 31 July 2021 at midnight.
  • Submissions will be judged on literary merit, originality and readability.
  • Once selected, the winner will be contacted by email or telephone.
  • Copyright remains with the author but AnthologyMagazine reserves the right to be the first to publish or arrange a broadcast of selected works. The right to use the stories to further publicise this award is also retained.
  • Submission of a written piece implies the author’s acceptance of the rules and conditions.
  • Anthology Magazine reserves the right to change the prizes in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

www.anthology-magazine.com

EU Literary Tourism:Untapped Potential #EURegionsWeek

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Spot-lit Project were delighted to present at the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities.

The session began with a brief description of the EU Interreg NPA funded Spot-Lit Project and how it is breaking new ground in this new and emerging cultural sector. This was followed by short presentations from the project regions highlighting the untapped potential of literary tourism in the EU and the various ways in which literary tourism businesses have been supported through the project to cooperate together.

Q & As followed with participants from the project regions answering questions.  The session concluded with a summing up from the Lead Partner organisation ICBAN.

If you missed the session you can watch it at the link below.

https://euregionsweek2020-video.eu/video/eu-literary-tourism-untapped-potential

 

 

Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary 2020 Weekend

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Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary 2020 Weekend is going full steam ahead with the official opening planned for next Friday, October 16. The Quarter’s driving force, Donan Harvey, says despite Covid they are planning a full schedule of exciting events to keep all entertained and engaged during what promises to be a great weekend.

The official opening will be performed at 7p.m by the noted writer, Rose Seritova. An acclaimed novelist Rose’s second book, The Watsons, won Bronze at the International SPR Book Awards 2019 while some of her shorter works were runners-up in the Flash Prize and Listowel Writer’s Week. Rose has made numerous appearances at literary events in Ireland and the UK, including the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. She is also much in demand for lectures in schools and colleges.

This event will then open the floodgates for what Donnan’s describes as “a very busy weekend.” With the official opening out of the way ‘The Life and Times of Lord George Hill’ follows immediately at 7.30pm. Presented by the Elusive Players this is a ten-minute play about Lord George Hill who is buried in Conwal Parish Church cemetery alongside his first wife Cassandra Knight, niece of Jane Austen. The story here is that after the death of Cassandra during childbirth, Lord George went on to marry her younger sister, Louisa. The play will examine the aims and ambitions of Lord George and his endeavours to gentrify the people of Gweedore.

For poetry aficionados ‘The Diamond Writers’, a cross-community group based in Raphoe, will be giving readings of their acclaimed works. Indeed, the publication of ‘Wednesday Words’ in 2017, their 10th anniversary collection of poems, essays, memory pieces and short stories, was a major event in the Donegal literary calendar. A really talented ensemble a number of the writers have won, or been placed in, prestigious national and local competitions.

No literary festival would be complete without a writing workshop and so a ‘Writers Masters Class’ on how to become a successful author gets underway at 11am on Saturday, October 17. This is, however, no ordinary workshop in that Cathedral Quarter vice Chair and UTV’s Gareth Wilkinson will chair a writers masters class where he will find out from three successful authors the magic formula to getting their work published.

One particularly interesting author is local man Declan Gallagher. The town native emigrated to London in the mid-eighties and then to New York, a year later, where he worked in a Mafia-controlled concrete union, then to the carpenter union using false names provided by the construction companies. During his time there, he became aware of the danger of working with these companies and how many Irish men were murdered for crossing the Mafia. His book ‘The Poisoned Glen’ tells the story of the influence this had on illegal Irish emigrants and how some met their untimely death.

The afore mentioned Rose Seritova will also be participating. Her two novels ‘The Watsons’ and ‘The Longbourn Letters’ have been critically acclaimed. The Jane Austen Regency World Magazine described ‘The Watsons’ as a “very satisfying, sometimes moving and often laugh-out-loud hilarious work” whilst the same magazine described “The Longbourn Letters” as “a glorious epistolary novel that mixes laugh-out-loud hilariousness with serious social comment and often quite touching sentiment.”

Last but certainly not least of the authors is Lissa Oliver, Chairperson of the Irish Writers Union. Lissa is an award-winning journalist specialising in welfare for the horseracing industry, for both equine and participant health and well-being, her works published by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association and Irish and European racehorse trainers’ associations, among others. She is also a novelist having written three horseracing crime thrillers.

This should be a real blue-ribbon event with plenty for aspiring writers to get to grips with.
Following the Writers Masterclass, Melissa Shiels will transport you to the Regency period with a special workshop on the Fashion in the times of Jane Austen. Melissa will present recreations of the major fashions that were in vogue during that era. Finishing our events on the Saturday will be a special Childrens storytelling event with Louise Conaghan.

On Sunday Little John Nee will perform in the study hall in St Eunan’s College where he will recall what life was like growing up in the Letterkenny of his youth and how the town has changed. Stories and songs aplenty.

The Cathedral Quarter’s Literary Festival will come to a close with a gala concert featuring a whole host of local talent including noted local singer/songwriters, Maria McCormack, Mark Black, Zara Montgomery, Shauna McDaid, Without Willow and Aidan Laird.

Speaking yesterday Donan Harvey is adamant that the event will bring a bit of light relief during these strange times. He commented: “I would really like to thank Bord Failte, Donegal Co. Council and the Irish Writers Union for their support in getting this much needed event up and running. In these days of Covid we all need a bit of diversion and this should be great fun. So why not join with us next weekend for a bit of craic and a bit of entertainment!”

Check the Letterkenny Quarter’s social media pages for details of the events as some are Zoom recordings and others are live.

Explore Wigtown Book Festival Library

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The wonderful Wigtown Book Festial festival may be over for this year but you can watch and listen to all the events via the Wigtown Book Festival website. It’s a great way  to catch up with what you may have missed at this year’s  festival. Find more than 70 events easily accessible for free HERE

Explore the online showcase of Wigtown’s bookshops and the booksellers of Scotland’s National Book Town HERE.

 

 

literary tourism scotland

An Overview of Literary Tourism in Scotland

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From the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature to JM Barrie’s birthplace, from AirBnb Bookshops to the best literary festivals in the world, Scotland’s literary heritage and landscape is a strong draw for visitors. In this article we aim to uncover just some of the exciting things happening in Scotland’s burgeoning literary tourism industry.

A Strong Literary Heritage

For centuries, Scottish writing has been at the forefront of the world of literature. Scottish literature has also shaped and influenced some of the greatest writers to have ever put pen to paper.

Nobody can deny that Scotland’s breath-taking scenery and fascinating history have inspired writers for hundreds of years. There are almost too many literary destinations in Scotland to choose from. 

With writers such as Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns, Scotland is a country with a rich literary tradition. Scotland is home to a range of internationally recognised literary greats (from past times and in current writers). 

Contemporary Scottish Writers

Scotland’s contemporary writers also hold their own on the world stage. James Kelman, A L Kennedy, Ali Smith, Jackie Kay, Kate Atkinson, Iain Banks, Janice Galloway, Liz Lochhead, Alasdair Gray, Gregory Burke, Irvine Welsh, Andrew O’Hagan, James Robertson, Don Paterson, Kathleen Jamie, Douglas Dunn, Edwin Morgan, John Burnside; the list goes on.

Carol Ann Duffy, a previous Poet Laureate, hails from Glasgow and world-famous authors Alexander McCall Smith (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series), Ian Rankin (Rebus series) and JK Rowling (Harry Potter series) all live and work in Edinburgh.

Scotland’s Thriving Literary Tourism Industry

Association with these world-renowned writers provides a range of tourism experiences for literary tourists, from international literary festivals to tours, events, mobile applications, illuminated tours of literary landmarks and literary places, landscapes and events etc. Literary tourism in Scotland is well-developed, with proven backing of the literary sector and has impacted on Scotland’s economy.

Despite being a relatively small country, Scotland supports a diverse and growing range of festivals, many of which take place in peripheral areas.

In particular Scotland’s rural peripheries and islands – from Wigtown and Ullapool, to Shetland and Islay – have embraced the possibilities of the literary festival to enhance tourism, especially in the shoulder season and this has been supported by the nation’s tourism agency, VisitScotland (through EventScotland) and by the arts agency, Creative Scotland.

Wigtown, in Dumfries & Galloway, is a notable example of this trend. Basing itself on the model of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, since 1998 it has marketed itself as Scotland’s National Book Town (part of the international Book Town movement), offering a cluster of around a dozen bookshops and associated SMEs. Community regeneration – economic and social – has been at the heart of this project: currently more than 100 volunteers in a town of just under 1,000 people contribute to the project. At its core is the development of new and diverse audiences for literature and creating opportunities locally for engagement in literature for young people and as a destination for cultural and literary tourism. 

The future looks bright; nine Dumfries & Galloway businesses will take part in our Spot-lit Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme. The programme will run for a year and will support each of these local businesses to develop new literary tourism products, engaging with the region’s many literary assets from Robert Burns in Dumfries to Dorothy L Sayers in Gatehouse of  Fleet. See the full list of Spot-lit Scottish Projects here

Now it’s time to take a deep-dive into some of the very exciting literary destinations, festivals and things to do in Scotland. 

Top 10 Literary Things to Do in Scotland:

  1. Wigtown Book Festival 

wigtown festival

Named “One of the best autumn festivals in the world.’ in The Telegraph.

The Wigtown Book Festival is a 300-event plus festival covering a myriad of artforms every Sep/Oct. Wigtown Book Festival’s attendance grew 18% between 2014 and 2016. An independent economic impact survey found that the festival has created £2.1m for Dumfries & Galloway’s economy and that the event had a 23:1 return on public investment, highlighting the potential which niche festivals can have on local economies and indeed those in peripheral areas. For 2020 the festival still runs, despite COVID-19, with a strong online programme.

www.wigtownbookfestival.com

2. Scotland’s National Book Town in Wigtown. 

In the mid-1990s, it was suggested that a ‘book town’ on the model of Hay-on-Wye would be a good way to help regenerate a community in Scotland. In 1999 the new Scottish Parliament acknowledged Wigtown as Scotland’s National Book Town, and in the same year the first book festival took place.  Now there are more than a dozen bookshops and related businesses here.

Wigtown is held up to the rest of Scotland as an example of how to reinvigorate a regional economy.

Find out more about Wigtown Book Town and its booksellers: wigtown-booktown.co.uk

3. Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature: 

Edinburgh was the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, so there’s a lot for a literature lover to do. Plan to be there during the last three weeks of August for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the biggest literary event in the world. Every August around 1,000 writers and thinkers from across the planet come together to rub shoulders with audiences. In 2020 the festival still ran, despite COVID-19, through the magic of technology, crossing continents and time zones and beaming events from more than 30 countries straight into homes. Festival Events to Watch Again On Demand.

4. Big Burns Supper 

Perhaps the best known figure in Scottish literature internationally is Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scotland’s national Bard, whose work is celebrated worldwide with Burns Suppers on 25 January each year. Burns fans should also add Robert Burns House – plus Burns Mausoleum – in Dumfries to their bucket list.

bigburnssupper.com/

5. Peter Pan Moat Brae House 

The Peter Pan Moat Brae Experience is in the Dumfries & Galloway townhouse where J. M. Barrie, where creator of Peter Pan, played as a child.  The building  opened to the public in the summer of 2019 as a national centre for children’s literature.

Moat Brae has the potential to attract in excess of 45,000 visitors to Dumfries annually, which in turn, will protect existing jobs whilst creating an estimated 40 new jobs locally.  Moat Brae has been named among Time magazine’s “coolest places” to visit.

https://www.peterpanmoatbrae.org/

6. The Open Book 

This unique AirBnB bookshop experience, run by Wigtown Festival Company, allows visitors to run a bookshop in Wigtown during their stay. The Open Book is fully booked until 2021 and has garnered media attention from around the world, helping raise the profile of the Wigtown and create a network of international cheerleaders for Wigtown.”

www.wigtownbookfestival.com

7. Big Lit Festival, 

A smaller literary festival usually held in Gatehouse of Fleet in May www.biglit.org/

8. Big Dog Children’s Book Festival (April)

This annual children’s book festival for Dumfries is run by Wigtown Festival Company. Big Dog 2020 took place from Friday 24 April to Sunday 3 May, with a new event was released online ach day. You can find all the sessions HERE. 

www.wigtownbookfestival.com

9. Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival (May/June)

Scotland’s largest rural arts festival in multiple venues across Dumfries & Galloway – not predominantly literary but with some crossover; they also coordinate the region’s theatre touring network. 

https://www.dgartsfestival.org.uk/

10. Big Bang Weekend (March)

This annual Festival of Science and Dark Skies in Scotland’s Book Town in Wigtown is run by Wigtown Festival Company

www.wigtownbookfestival.com

 

Useful Links:

 

The Cluster Lit&Tour Questionnaire

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Our colleagues in The University of Lisbon & University of the Algarve are conducting research on the intersection of the scientific areas of Literature and Tourism. Your participation in this survey would be hugely appreciated:  Short Survey. 

The Cluster Lit&Tour was founded in 2012 with the aim of promoting research on the intersection of the scientific areas of Literature and Tourism. An interdisciplinary confluence that has the capability to reframe geography, rebuild places and redefine concepts such as literary place, tourist or traveller.
Today,  Lit&Tour researchers  develop research around three main hubs:
(i) Concepts and methodologies: focused on the definition of concepts and methodologies that would enable the existence and autonomy of Literature and Tourism Studies as a discipline;
(ii) Representations of tourism in literature: focused on textual analysis;
(iii) Literary Tourism: focused on the study of literary tourism practices and products, and on the development of literary products and experiences.

 

Find out more HERE

Partners: