We’re excited to announce the expansion of Push the Boat Out’s writer development programme, creating more opportunities for poets and artists to connect, develop, and share their work beyond the festival itself. This growth reflects our ongoing commitment to nurturing creativity, broadening access, and supporting artists at every stage of their journey.
Today we’re launching two funded opportunities as part of this expanded programme. A new residency at Little Sparta will support two Scotland-based mid-career poets to collaborate on an ambitious new poetry-led work, with time, space and coaching to develop their practice. Alongside this, in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, we’re offering three paid commissions open to artists at any stage of their career, inviting bold new performance pieces responding to our 2026 theme, The Space Between to be showcased at Push the Boat Out Festival in November.
Both of our open calls this year will be accompanied by our new coaching programme for poets. This will provide wrap-around support to the selected artists who will be offered five coaching sessions between September and January from highly qualified and experienced coaches through Coaching for Creatives.
We are also expanding our range of year round opportunities. In addition to continuing our popular online workshops, led by stellar poets based around the world, we recently launched a series of online conversations between international poets and their English-language translators. These events will open up access to some of the most exciting poetry being written today, across languages and cultures.
We’re also launching a range of in-person and online development workshops focused on the practical side of being a writer, covering topics such as taxes, working with agents, and navigating imposter syndrome. With six events between now and March 2027, two will take place in person in Edinburgh and four will be online.
At the festival itself, we are also responding to feedback that more opportunities are needed for mid-career writers with a new Sector Symposium. Mirroring our Development Day which has provided highly valued networking, training and discussion events designed to help emerging and aspiring writers to develop their careers, this will support more established writers.
This expanded programme will roll out over the coming months. Whether you’re an emerging or established writer, or simply passionate about poetry, there are plenty of ways to get involved so stay connected for upcoming opportunities.
We also want to hear from you! If you are a poet, no matter what stage of your career you are at, we’d love to hear about what sort of training, discussion or development events would benefit you. Drop us a line at [email protected]
We can’t wait to share more poetry with you, all year round.
Push the Boat Out is supported by Creative Scotland, and we are grateful to have received further funding from the Expanded Festivals Fund which has enabled us to increase our writer development support.