SHOWCASING OUR SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
JO JAY 2023
Josephine Jay is an Edinburgh based writer and artist. She is 1/3rd of the Whatever Next? Adoption project and co-author of On Adult Adoptive Identities. She has written for The Sunday Times Magazine, Grazia, gal-dem, The Skinny, Extra Teeth Magazine and Holyrood Magazine. She was shortlisted for the Jessica George 2023 Bursary and 2023 Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers Award.
KARISHMA JOBANPUTRA 2021
Karishma Jobanputra is a writer currently based in London. After earning a BA in Law with Humanities from Warwick University, she received a partial scholarship to attend Columbia University as a master’s student in fiction. During her time there, she studied with writers including Paul Beatty, Sam Lipsyte, Leslie Jamison, Hilton Als and Joshua Furst. In her final year, she received a Chair’s Fellowship, the Dean’s Travel Grant and taught writing at Gilda’s Club NYC and in the Columbia Summer High School Programme. After graduating, she worked at publishing houses and literary agencies in New York City before moving back to London. Shortlisted for the 2021 Disquiet Literary Prize, her work has featured in Pigeon Pages NYC, No Tokens Journal, Columbia Journal and The Rumpus, among other places. She is currently at work on a novel and a collection of short stories. More can be found on her website and her commissioned piece for Eilean Shona is on our blog page.
LEE MACKENZIE 2022
Lee Mackenzie is an artist and poet from Redditch, Worcestershire, UK. He works on interdisciplinary projects combining poetry and the visual arts. His poems have been published in the New European, Birmingham Poetry Literary Journal and Coast to Coast to Coast and he is Assistant Editor at Neon Books. Recently, he has been awarded Arts Council funding for research into the practice of 'Poetry Mapping'. Lee is also an assistant editor of Neon Books and received Arts-Council funding to Develop My Creative Practice (DYCP), been commissioned to create a number of ‘Poetry Maps’, became owner/manager of the artists’ cooperative, Artefact in Stirchley, Birmingham and created its poetry night, Foreward, and its creative writing group, Work in Progress. He has formed successful relationships with several writers including Paul McGrane & the Poetry Society Stanza, Forest Poets; writer, Jemilea Wisdom-Baako & her creative-arts company, Writerz & Scribez; and Dizz Tate, with whom he runs the creative writing group, and the Eccles Centre at the British Library, with whom he undertook a fellowship focused upon the mapping practices and journals of Captain Cook. More can be found on his website and his commissioned piece for Eilean Shona is on our blog page.
ANNA WATSON 2020
Anna’s background includes studying English and History at university, followed by years researching and writing academic essays. She has worked with an art and design publisher, first editing and then commissioning. Currently she is working for an architectural practice, conceiving, commissioning and ghost-writing articles for their online journal. Her love of creative writing has been a constant throughout her life. As described by acclaimed author, Kate Mosse, Anna has a ‘combination of genuine curiosity and love of words and landscape - coupled with a wish to express herself to the best of her ability. Her writing is beautiful, lyrical and original, infused with a respect for the natural world.’ Anna describes her personal writing ‘as creative non-fiction, inspired by people, places and my own personal experiences. Usually short form, it aspires towards lyricism in the sharing of knowledge and feeling.’ She has a ‘deep love for words, as our primary means of understanding our world and expressing ourselves.’ Her commissioned piece for Eilean Shona is on our blog page.