Some organisations use Writers in Residence to share insights about their offices, people or location. That’s fine. Well done them! But we wanted to subvert the idea: to write instead about somewhere everyday, overlooked or unusual, and to let the writer find their own space.

And, in the best tradition of 26, our writers were given a randomly selected letter of the alphabet as a starting point. They chose a place that began with that letter and wrote about it. Somewhere that held a special interest for them, somewhere, perhaps, they loved or hated. The more specific the better. One shop would beat a high street. A high street would still be OK. But an entire town would be too big for this brief.

Once the writer had chosen their place, they needed to actually go there, not just look it up on Google or Wikipedia. And they were encouraged to go back two or three times.

We wanted them to team up with a photographer, designer or artist to create an image to go with the piece. They could also make sound recordings or just record a podcast and publish the transcript.

You can see the results here. One letter, one day at a time: poems, short stories, articles, reflections and songs. We hope you enjoy them and come back for more.

The Steepness of the Brae

Address: Shepherd’s Brae, Newport-on-Tay, Fife – shortcut between Shepherd’s Road and the main West Road
Words: Joan Lennon
Images: Thomas Heitler

The Steepness of the Brae

Past the conker tree,
school tie askew,
skitter down
the steepness of the brae
(paving ribbed like corduroy,
paint-cracked handrail
the perfect height
for last year)
chase
to the bus stop.

Returned at day’s end,
bent-backed,
climb
the steepness of the brae
(not noticing the ghosts of shearlings
mistily sure-footing by,
from hill fauld
to market fauld)
trudge
past the conker tree.

Brae – a steep bank or hillside
Shearlings – lambs between first and second shearing
Fauld – fold or enclosure

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