Celebrating 25 years of island storytelling. The Lewis Lines Writer-in-Residence brings new voices to the heart of the Hebrides.
Write new lines on ancient shores.
The Lewis Lines Writer-in-Residence offers time, space, and a fireside on the Isle of Lewis for writers exploring heritage, identity, and belonging.
Launched in celebration of the Islands Book Trust’s 25th anniversary, the Lewis Lines Writer-in Residence is a new cultural partnership between the Trust and The New Lewis in Stornoway. This pilot residency offers one writer, wordsmith, or creative practitioner a quiet retreat on the Isle of Lewis to develop new work rooted in place, language, and connection.
The residency will award the successful applicant £3,000, selected by a panel of three judges. The New Lewis will provide dedicated writing spaces, including a private upstairs studio and a fireside nook below, reflecting the island’s balance of solitude and warmth. The residency will culminate in a publication and a public-facing event hosted at The New Lewis.
Open to writers working in English, Scottish or Irish Gaelic, or bilingually, Lewis Lines invites voices exploring heritage, identity, communication, language and the meeting point between land and sea. The residency recipient will produce a short legacy text for Island Notes: 25 Years On, contribute content to a publication facilitated by the Islands Book Trust, and deliver at least one public workshop, reading, or performance. These outputs will contribute to the Trust’s growing archive of contemporary island writing.
This flagship pilot project anchors IBT’s wider 25-Year Legacy Programme, designed to support the next generation of island storytellers. It reinforces the Trust’s commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and cross-cultural exchange, welcoming writers of all backgrounds and abilities while strengthening creative links between Scotland, Ireland, the Nordic world, and the global diaspora.
The Lewis Lines Residency positions the Hebrides once again as a living literary landscape, where new voices write their own lines upon ancient shores.