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Congratulations to the recipients of the 2025 LAS Writer Bursaries

Posted on 6th August, 2025 in LAS, News, Press release

We are delighted to announce that the five writers selected to receive the inaugural LAS Writer Bursaries for work-in-progress are Janette Ayachi, Tony Black, Michael Mullen, Chris Carse Wilson and Elissa Soave. Congratulations all of you, and we’re excited to see the finished books in due course.

“It is so exciting to be able to support such vibrant work, in a variety of forms, from writers at different career stages and in different communities. Using a lottery format in our high-demand scenario was a pilot and we will be interested in feedback from those applying.”

Mairi Kidd, Chair of Literature Alliance Scotland

More about the selected writers

Janette Ayachi is a Scottish-Algerian poet. Her poetry, prose & essays have been translated into several languages in journals & anthologies. She’s the author of The Mermaid, The Girl and The Gondola (Black Wolf Edition), illustrated by Fabio Perla; Hand Over Mouth Music (Pavilion, Liverpool University Press), which won the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Literary Award 2019 & QuickFire, Slow Burning (Pavilion, LUP, 2024) which was shortlisted for Scotland’s National Book Awards & The Laurel Prize 2024. She’s a regular on BBC arts programmes, performs at festivals internationally & collaborates with artists. She’s currently writing her third poetry collection, Corpus Mysticum & looking for an agent for her travel memoir, Lonerlust & debut novel, Sweet Figs.

Tony Black is the author of more than twenty books. Tony was described by Irvine Welsh as his “favourite British crime writer” for his Penguin Random House crime series, which garnered eight CWA Dagger nominations. His ‘dad and a lad’ His Father’s Son was praised by Lisa Jewell as “soulful and stunningly written”, whilst his Not the Booker-Prize runner-up The Last Tiger was called “striking wildcard brilliance” by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Michael Mullen is a queer writer and spoken word artist from Glasgow. Writing in both Scots and Standard English, at home on the page or the stage, their work has been featured in Gutter, Neu Reekie: Neu Voices and Seahorse Publications among others. Michael was the co-winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2023-24. Their first collection Goonie was released in June 2025 and nominated for the Forward Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection.

Chris Carse Wilson is an autistic author whose novel Fray was a Financial Times ‘best new debut fiction’ selection and was praised by Alan Cumming as ‘Beautiful, amazing, completely mesmerising. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.’ He was included in The List’s Hot 100 as one of Scotland’s most exciting cultural figures and is currently working on adult literary fiction and middle-grade books, both exploring nature and neurodivergence. Chris is a passionate advocate for mental health awareness and was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 40. He uses running and the natural environment to manage his lifelong mental health challenges. Chris lives outside Dundee, where he was part of the team who created V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum.

Elissa Soave is a Scottish writer, living and working in South Lanarkshire where most of her fiction is set. She won the inaugural Primadonna Prize in 2019, and her debut novel, Ginger and Me, was published by HQ, HarperCollinsin July 2022. The novel was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award 2023 and film rights were acquired by Mother Pictures. Elissa’s second novel, Graffiti Girls, followed in March 2025, and her third, Common Ground, is out in February 2026. She was a judge on the Primadonna Prize 2022 and the Curae Prize 2023 and 2025. Elissa is currently working on her fourth novel.

More about the Writer Bursaries

The 2025 LAS Writer Bursaries for work-in-progress aims to support established writers with their work-in-progress. This pilot programme focused on writers who rely on an advance model of income to support their writing, supplementing advances on royalties with a grant of £3,000. The full eligibility criteria for the 2025 writer bursaries are available here.

As well as providing financial support for established writers at work on their next book, this pilot programme trialled different approaches. We wanted the application process to be as simple and quick as possible: applications took, on average 21 minutes to complete and submit. All applicants were informed of the outcome within 10 days of the deadline. Our 5 writers were selected through a lottery process (using a random number generator), with the draw witnessed by two board members and an independent observer (many thanks to Ally Barr from the Scottish Poetry Library for taking that role). As well as taking a different approach to gatekeeping and bias, this allowed us to maximise the amount of money going directly to writers and to minimise the level of administrative resource for running the programme.

We are in the process of completing a full evaluation of the programme and the approaches we trialled, and would be grateful for your feedback/comments – especially if you are writer based in Scotland. Please send your thoughts (positive, negative or neutral) to [email protected]