Imprint Book Festival 2021

This workshop offers the opportunity to explore the role research plays in bringing a story to life. It will look at

 Why research is important in your writing
 Identifying sources relevant to your writing
 How research influences the building of place, character and plot
 Ethical considerations that might be important
 Knowing when you have gone too far

The workshop will include practical and interactive activities; while remaining focused on a writing project you are currently working on or plan to start.

Saeida Rouass is the author of Assembly of the Dead, a historical detective novel set in Marrakesh in 1906 and inspired by the true story of the ‘Moorish Jack the Ripper.’ She is also the author of Eighteen Days of Spring in Winter and has contributed to the anthologies The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human – Tales of Many Muslim Worlds (2019), Our Morocco (2020) and We Wrote in Symbols; Love and Erotica by Arab Women (2021). She has been published by the Independent, Newsweek, Skin Deep and Wasafari Magazine and is currently working on the sequel to Assembly of the Dead. She is a 2019 Churchill Fellow with work focused on the impacts of violent extremist violence on women and Minoritised communities. She is a Trustee of Al Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Centre and was awarded a Churchill COVID-19 Action Grant to research the impacts of the pandemic on domestic violence services for Moroccan and Arabic speaking women in London.

Colin McGuire is an award winning poet and performer from Glasgow, who now lives in Edinburgh, known for his dynamic, engaging performances. He has also been widely published in anthologies and literary journals. Colin is also an ESOL teacher and Mindfulness Meditation practitioner. He has performed across Scotland and the UK, winning the Shore Poets Quiet Slam in 2014 and the Luminate Slam 2015 and a semi-finalist in the BBC Fringe Slam in 2013 and 2018.
Colin won the Out:spoken award for the ‘film poetry’ category and best poetry overall in London in 2018. He has been a Lead Reader and Creative Writing Workshop facilitator for several years with Open Book Charity, running sessions in communities and prisons around Scotland.
He regularly runs Mindfulness and Expressive Writing Workshops with schools, charities and libraries

Sara Sheridan is a writer and activist who is interested particularly in female history. She has written more than 20 books. Zoe Strachan writes across different forms: novels, short stories, essays, libretti and teaches on the University of Glasgow Creative Writing programme.
In what is sure to be an enjoyable session Zoe and Sara will discuss one of Sara’s newest publications, The Fair Botanists. Edinburgh, 1822 Romp and intrigue in Scotland’s Enlightenment City centred around the Royal Botanic Garden in the run up to the visit of George IV.

All events are free but donations are welcome to support the delivery of the programme. Spaces are limited so book now to avoid disappointment