Emerging Critics Mentoring programme – Improving your skills
Over the course of the winter months, 20 writers are working with mentors on the Emerging Critics Mentoring Programme. Mentoring is offered in small groups run by the following mentors: Alan Taylor; Rosemary Goring; David Robinson; Kaite Welsh; and Dave Coates. Mentees are receiving guidance on writing literary criticism for print and online platforms and receiving individual feedback. We hope to publish the best of the new writing on these Emerging Critics pages at the end of the mentoring period.
The mentoring programme is now underway. If you were unsuccessful in your application or would like to learn more but don’t think mentoring is for you, take a look at some of the books on the reading list below.
We hope to be able to offer mentoring again in the future. Check back to this page for further details in due course.
Who is involved?
Starter Reading List
The Elements of Style
By William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Though the authors are American there is no better pocket-sized guide to writing lucidly, fluently and engagingly.
Confessions of a Book Reviewer
By George Orwell
Seventy years may have passed since Orwell wrote this entertaining – and obviously heartfelt – essay but it still strikes a chord.
Aspects of the Novel
By E.M. Forster
Have trouble distinguishing between story and plot and can’t quite figure out what the relationship is between character and incident? Forster’s – author of A Room With a View and A Passage to India – your man.
A Writer’s Diary
By Virginia Woolf
Consisting of extracts from the diaries Woolf kept from 1918-41, there is no better insight into the mind of a creative writer, reviewer and reader.
Snakes Charmers in Texas: Essays, 1980-87
By Clive James
Most reviews have a shorter shelf life than fresh fruit; Clive James’s are an exception. Who but him could describe gold-costumed ice-skaters Torvill and Dean as looking like “two packets of Benson & Hedges cigarettes dancing in a fridge”?
A Reading Diary: A Year of Favourite Books
By Alberto Manguel
A record of a year’s reading kept by the recently-appointed National Librarian of Argentina, from Don Quixote to Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing.
The Writing Life
By Annie Dillard
A glimpse for non-writers into the trials and triumphs of a life spent wrestling with words. “I do not so much write a book as sit up with it,” reflects Dillard, “as with a dying friend.”
How Fiction Works
By James Wood
What do we mean when we say we ‘know’ a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? Why do most endings of novels disappoint? Who better to go for enlightenment than the New Yorker’s chief literary critic?
The Top Ten Best Sellers
By Gore Vidal
In 1973, Vidal decided to read all the top ten fiction bestsellers. This spikey, insightful essay was the result. What conclusion did the great iconoclast come to? “The authors prefer fact or its appearance to actual invention.” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
The Collected Dorothy Parker
By Dorothy Parker
Was there ever a more acerbic reviewer? Or a wittier one? “Why,” she once wrote, “should readers never be harrowed? Surely there is enough happiness in life without having to go to books for it.”
The Great Tradition
By FR Leavis
First published in 1948 and reprinted countless times since, Leavis’s highly influential uncompromising association of literature and morality remains a landmark in modern criticism. Just five novelists passed muster: Jane Austen, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and DH Lawrence. The only Dickens’ novel he liked was Hard Times.
Experience
By Martin Amis
Go directly to page 154 of this splendid memoir where Amis passes on sage advice given to him by one his mentors, vis “never start consecutive paragraphs with the same word – unless you begin at least three paragraphs this way and the reader can tell you’re doing it on purpose”.
Don’t Tell the Grown-Ups: Subversive Children’s Literature
By Alison Lurie
Is Winnie-the-Pooh subversive? Or Peter Pan? Or Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Of course they all are because all great children’s books are. Contentious or what!
Good As Her Word: Selected Journalism
By Lorna Sage
A self-styled hack, albeit one with a formidable academic pedigree, Sage, who died in 2001, maintained a lifelong dialogue with books, unashamedly – and necessarily – writing for money in order to supplement her income.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
By Pauline Kael
Anyone who aspires to write about the movies must first make acquaintance with Kael of whom Woody Allen once said: “She has everything that a great critic needs except judgment. And I don't mean that facetiously. She has great passion, terrific wit, wonderful writing style, huge knowledge of film history, but too often what she chooses to extol or fails to see is very surprising.”
Outlets for critical and creative writing
The following is a list of the literary magazines, podcasts and newsprint outlets in Scotland which cover all things books. Let us know if we’ve missed one!
Literary magazines in Scotland – Print and online:
Scottish Review of Books – scottishreviewofbooks.org
Gutter – guttermag.co.uk
Octavius Magazine – octaviusmagazine.com
New Writing Scotland – via arts.gla.ac.uk
Edinburgh Review – edinburgh-review.com
Dundee Writes – dundeewrites.wordpress.com
Female Gaze – femalegazereview.com
The Dark Horse – thedarkhorsemagazine.com
Pushing Out the Boat – pushingouttheboat.co.uk
The Eildon Tree – via scotborders.gov.uk
The Bottle Imp – via arts.gla.ac.uk
Thi Wurd – thi-wurd.com/
The Drouth – thedrouth.org
Lallans – lallans.co.uk
Northwords Now – northwordsnow.co.uk
Product Magazine – productmagazine.co.uk
The Inkwell magazine – publishedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk
Glasgow Review of Books – glasgowreviewofbooks.com
The Scottish Historical Journal – euppublishing.com
The New Shetlander – shetland-communities.org.uk
The Island Review – theislandreview.com
Caledonian Mercury – caledonianmercury.com
Scottish Review – scottishreview.net
Sites we think you might find interesting:
Blogs (Scotland)
Book Witch – bookwitch.wordpress.com
Open Book Publishers Blog – blogs.openbookpublishers.com
National Library of Scotland – blog.nls.uk
Bloody Scotland – www.bloodyscotland.com
Scottish Poetry Library Blog – scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk
Clear Minded Creative – clearmindedcreative.com
Cornflower – cornflower.typepad.com
Scottish Book Trust – scottishbooktrust.com
Blogs (outwith Scotland)
Page Turner – www.newyorker.com
The Millions – themillions.com
Book Riot – bookriot.com
Electric Literature – electricliterature.com
NY Books – nybooks.com
Quill And Quire – quillandquire.com
Times Literary Supplement – timescolumns.typepad.com
Far Away by the Something-or-Other – foyles.co.uk
A Little Blog of Books – alittleblogofbooks.com
Turnaround – theturnaroundblog.com
Modern Mrs Darcy – modernmrsdarcy.com
The Paris Review – theparisreview.org
The Guardian Books Blog – theguardian.com
The Offing – theoffingmag
LRB Blog – lrb.co.uk
Podcasts (Scotland)
Emerging Critics: Reviewing for Newspapers – via podomatic.com
Hitchhikers Guide to Scottish Literature – Irvine Welshvia soundcloud.com
Scottish Poetry Library – scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk
Edinburgh World Heritage – ewht.org.uk
Scots Whayhae – scotswhayhae.com
Scottish Book Trust – scottishbooktrust.com
BBC Radio Scotland – bbc.co.uk
Newspapers in Scotland offering coverage to books
Reviews, critical essays, extracts, poetry, interviews, features
The Herald / Sunday Herald – heraldscotland.com
National – thenational.scot
The Scotsman / Scotland on Sunday – scotsman.com
The Times Scotland – thetimes.co.uk
Sunday Times – thetimes.co.uk
Mail on Sunday Scotland – dailymail.co.uk
Daily Record / Sunday Mail- dailyrecord.co.uk
Press & Journal – pressandjournal.co.uk
Inverness Courier – inverness-courier.co.uk
West Highland Free Press – whfp.com
Articles and sites of interest
Interesting articles and blogs on rights and payment for critical and creative content
Freelance Journalism in a Digital Age – lse.ac.uk
Why English Writers Accept Being Treated Like Dirt – blogs.spectator.co.uk
Travel Freelance Writers – thewritelife.com
20 Highest Paying Media Sites for Freelance Journalists – webwriterspotlight.com
BBC ‘paying prospective scriptwriters the equivalent of £2 an hour’theguardian.com
Writers Reign – writersreign.co.uk
London Freelance – londonfreelance.org
Who Pays for Lit Crit – whopaysforlitcrit.co.uk
Who Pays Writers – whopayswriters.com
Scottish Book Trust – scottishbooktrust.com