The Edwin Morgan Trust is thrilled to announce our 2023 The Second Life Awards recipients.
The volume and quality of entries exceeded all of our expectations, and Trustees have engaged in lengthy deliberation for the past two months to consider how best to support these exciting proposals.
It is the first year that we have launched TSLA in this format and we felt that it was important to be as flexible and responsive as possible. The majority of the applications we received requested between £1500 and £4000, so while the overall number of projects that the EMT will be funding is fewer than we originally anticipated, we are really excited to support ideas of this scale.
Core to The Second Life Awards is a desire to fund projects that enrich Scottish cultural life and connect with Edwin Morgan’s life and work. As may be expected of a grants programme that aims to connect with the life and legacy of Edwin Morgan, our 2023 TSLA projects are wide reaching and multifaceted.
Brilliant Vibrating Interface: Queering the Post-Internet through Poetry and Practice
Spam Zine and Press | Maria Sledmere, Kirsty Dunlop, Alice Hill-Woods and Loll Jung
SPAM Zine and Press will use their TSLA grant to fund workshops, podcasts and editorial features in the lead up to a book-length publication and digital exhibition inspired by Edwin Morgan’s assertion that ‘Poetry is a brilliant vibrating interface between the human and the non-human’.
Lying Over Under Another
Nichola Scrutton and Zoë Strachan
Scrutton and Strachan will use The Second Life Awards to assist in the development, recording and performance of a sound art piece inspired by Edwin Morgan’s scrapbooks.
Macfarlan & Morgan
Joey Simons
The Second Life Awards will contribute to the development of a short film about the nineteenth-century pedlar poet James Macfarlan, whom Morgan wrote about, and contemporary Glasgow.
Other
Hannah Lavery and Marjorie Lotfi
Other is a conversation in poetry exploring the experience of living as a mixed race person in Scotland. This conversation will develop with research time in the Edwin Morgan Archive at the Scottish Poetry Library, and will be realised in the form of a pamphlet, audio recording, and live performance.
We are also supporting two continuing projects from the 2022 TSLA programme:
Associate Artist Programme
Disability Arts Online
Last year through The Second Life Awards, Disability Arts Online extended their Associate Artist Programme into Scotland for the first time to support poet Ellen Renton – read about her work and the project here.
This second year of funding will enable Disability Arts to support another Scottish poet through their Associate programme. The 2023 Associate Artist will be announced in the coming months.
The Edwin Morgan Bursary
Moniack Mhor
Last year, Sanctuary Queer Arts and Scottish BIPOC Writers’ Network nominated two poets, Jamie McCormick and Shasta Hanif Ali, to receive specialised residencies at Moniack Mhor – read more about Jamie and Shasta here.
In 2023, the Edwin Morgan Bursary programme will enable Moniack Mhor to support a further two underrepresented Scottish poets through individualised residencies.
In addition to these six TSLA projects, the Edwin Morgan Trust has decided to support existing organisations to develop their programmes in alignment with EMT missions, aims and objectives. This is a pilot fund that will enable partners to build on their existing work and subsidise the current lack of support for small Scottish organisations in our sector. Visit the TSLA Partners 2023 page for more information.
Edwin Morgan Trust 