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Pamela Beasant

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Contact: [email protected]
Local authority: Orkney Islands
Languages: English, Scots
Author type: Playwright, Poet, Writer
Pamela Beasant's headshot

I write mainly poetry, and my collection Running with a Snow Leopard (Two Ravens Press) was published in 2008, Orkney: A Celebration of Light and Landscape, with photographer Iain Sarjeant, in 2010, and The Crow in the Rear-View Mirror (Hansel Coooperative Press) in 2018.

My work appears in many anthologies, including These Islands We Sing (Polygon), 100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems (Luath), Cleave and Riptide (both Two Ravens Press), New Writing Scotland and Chapman. I've also written non-fiction, including Stanley Cursiter. My information books for children have been published by Usborne, Collins, Kingfisher and Parragon.

I have been awarded writers' bursaries by the former Scottish Arts Council, Hi-Arts and Creative Scotland. In 2008-09, I was poet partner in Stromness for the Scottish Poetry Library, and since 2011 have been the Director of the annual Orkney Writers' Course for the St Magnus International Festival, working with co-tutor, Jen Hadfield.

I'm available to do poetry, prose or script-writing readings, workshops or talks, with any interested audiences, and am happy to work with writing groups or go into schools. Apart from directing and teaching at the Orkney Writers' Course, I have given poetry readings and workshops all over the UK, and in Brittany, Bratislava, Canada and Australia.

(Works in Scots)

Local authorities will visit

Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; Edinburgh City; Falkirk; Fife; Glasgow City; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian

Events will deliver

Mentoring; Panel event; Reading; Residency; Talk; Workshop; Professional development, CLPL or CPD; Chairing events

Audience will work with

Adult learners; Care-experienced people; Intergenerational learning; Adults with additional support needs; People experiencing mental health problems; Vulnerable young people (under 18); Vulnerable adults; Vulnerable older people; Young people in the community (e.g. Youth clubs, Guides, Scouts); Young people with additional support needs (under 18) (ASN/SEN)

Topics of work

Activism & protest; Ageing; Biography & memoir; Childhood; Class & society; Coasts, seas & oceans; Contemporary fiction; Death, grief & bereavement; Discrimination & prejudice; Editing & editing your own work; Event production; Family; Friendship; Gender equality; Health including mental health & wellbeing; Historical fiction; Human rights; Island communities; LGBTQIA+ characters; Loneliness & isolation; Poverty; Publishing & getting published; Rural communities; Self-publishing & independent publishing; World War 1

Age groups published for

Children; Teens; Adults

Age groups will work with

12-14; 15-18; 18+

Audience size

0-10; 11-30; 31-100