Biography

Shola von Reynolds is a Scottish-Nigerian writer. A graduate of the MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, Shola completed the course with support of grants and a Jessica York Writing Scholarship.

After graduating, Shola remained in Glasgow, began writing a debut novel and also gained a coveted place to study on the MSt in Literature at the University of Oxford.

In 2018, Shola was Cove Park’s Scottish Emerging Writer and has had fiction published or upcoming in The Cambridge Literary Review and The Stockholm Review amongst others. Shola writes widely around race, ornament, beauty, and gender, has written articles for AnOther and i-D and is a Scottish Review of Books Emerging Critic.

How the Award Helped

Biography

Born in 1994, Rachel is a writer and poet from Coatbridge, described as ‘utterly committed’ with ‘outstanding potential’.

After gaining a first class mark in creative writing studies at the University of Edinburgh, Rachel was offered a place to study on the MSc Creative Writing. She opted to follow the poetry strand, and alongside her studies has acted as a poetry editor for 50GS (an online creative journal) and volunteered with the Scottish Poetry Library.  She has worked part-time as Deputy Programme Assistant at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and as a Tutor in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Rachel’s work has been published in various journals including Gutter magazine and Antiphon. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize, organised annually by Girton College at the University of Cambridge. She has performed her work both nationally and internationally and has twice been on the winning team of Unislam, the UK’s inter-university performance poetry championship.

Rachel has competed in a national performance poetry competition at the University of Texas, represented Scotland at the Talking Doorsteps Poetry Project at the Roundhouse, and performed her work in Bergen, Norway, where she lived in 2014-15.

As well as poetry, Rachel is interested in playwriting and writing for the theatre. Her play exploring class relations at university was selected from 75 five entries to be performed at the Winter Words New Writing Festival, organised by Glasgow based In Motion Theatre Company. She has been involved with the Traverse Young Writers group at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and was selected to participate in the Scottish Review of Books Emerging Critics Mentoring Programme, where she was mentored by editor Alan Taylor.

How the Award Helped

Biography

Born in Edinburgh and raised in the Scottish Borders, JD Stewart discovered his love of theatre at the Edinburgh Acting School. He went on to develop his passion for the craft alongside his writing skills by completing a BA/Hons in English Studies at Stirling University, specialising in Creative Writing.

After graduating, JD worked in a number of locations throughout England, before moving to South Korea where he taught English for three and a half years. While there, his plays were produced by the Daegu Theatre Company and his stories assisted students learning English in China.

In 2015, JD was one of 22 students worldwide to be accepted onto an MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was a finalist for the Theatre Aspen Festival in 2016, and his plays have been workshopped and read throughout the city.

JD’s passion for writing extends to television and film, but his heart is in playwrighting. He hopes to continue this journey by exploring his cultural Scottish roots throughout his work.

How the Award Helped