CoastWord is, with nae word of a lie, the best small literary festival I’ve ever had the joy to attend. The camaraderie of the team, the beautiful welcome to Dunbar, and the excellent discussions and performances I’ve seen at the festival would be hard to match elsewhere; it is the specific folks involved who make this festival truly special and I tip my hat to one and aw of them. It’s been excellent to watch CoastWord grow over the years to become a staple of the Scottish literary calendar.
I first got involved in Coastword a couple of years ago, hosting a Belonging Project workshop with The Writing Mums, a group of open, engaging and terrific women writers. What struck me then was how that group’s willingness to be true to themselves and their writing gave permission for everyone else in the room to feed off of that honesty, and feel supported along their own writing journey. I left that workshop wondering how I could become a (albeit long-distance) member of that writing community, and have been trying to find a way to get back there ever since.
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