HI~Arts is delighted to announce that its highly successful and innovative critical assessment project for writers - Work in Progress - has been extended to include poetry and writing for children.

Until now, Work in Progress - which provides writers in the Highlands and Islands with impartial, anonymous, critical feedback on their work in progress - has only been open to writers of fiction and non-fiction. Now, poets and children's authors can use the scheme and gain access to high-level advice on their work, free of charge.

Work in Progress provides writers with an assessment report on their work completed by one of a specially selected panel of six of Scotland’s major writers including, where appropriate, feedback on potential markets and publishing opportunities, along with advice on plot, characters, structure, planning, language etc.

HI~Arts Writing Development Coordinator, Peter Urpeth, said:

"Work in Progress has proven to be a very well used and highly valued project by writers in the region. Writing can be a very isolated activity and most of us need some feedback on our work from time to time. This project provides anonymous, professional assessments by some of Scotland's finest writers. It provides very thorough, very useful advice and guidance and I'm delighted that we can now welcome poets and children's authors into the scheme.

"Many writers start off writing poetry and the grasp and feel for language it encourages is very important in developing not only as a poet but as a writer in many other forms. Likewise with writing for children - this is a real growth area but one of the most demanding and difficult writing markets to enter. This scheme will ensure that the writer's work is as good as it can be, and we aim to encourage writers of children's books and poets to really work at developing their writing.

"This extension to the scheme is another illustration of the fact that the Highlands and Islands is one of the best regions in Scotland to be a writer, and I'm really proud of that achievement - it's great that we have such a strong pool of writers living here that such schemes can be planned and delivered with confidence."

The extension of the Work in Progress scheme has been made possible due to the support of project funds from Scottish Arts Council and HIE.

Full guidelines on submitting a script for assessment can be found at the HI~Arts website - www.hi-arts.co.uk

Further details available from:

Peter Urpeth, Writing Development Co-ordinator, HI~Arts
Tel: 01463 717091

e-mail: peter@hi-arts.co.uk