New Scriptorium Anthology: Creative Writing

This Anthology is a project of the Creative Writing programme at the University of Dundee in partnership with the New Scriptorium, an artist-designed and -built structure on the grounds of Arbroath Abbey. The New Scriptorium came about to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of the declaration of Arbroath and was organised by partners in Arbroath, including the Arbroath 2020 community committee and Hospitalfield House. It imagines the Abbey when it was a busy working environment with a library or scriptorium at its heart.

For two weeks in November 2023, a group of nine Creative Writing students from the University of Dundee had the opportunity to be writers-in-residence at the New Scriptorium on the grounds of Arbroath Abbey. Taking on the role of creative researchers, the students were asked to consider the relationship between site and writing, which could include (but was not limited to) a relationship to community, environment, architecture, historical narrative or speculative futures.

The responses that emerged – in prose, poetry and dramatic writing – prove the inventive potential of this approach. Within the Anthology, we find the cramped hand of an unnamed medieval monk copying out manuscripts, an imagined conversation between Samuel Johnson and James Boswell on visiting the Arbroath in the 18^th century, traces of the Abbey’s red stones that can be seen throughout the built environment of Arbroath today, and reflections on the New Scriptorium itself. These writers celebrate a profound intertwining of language and location – we invite you to join them! Read their work.

This Anthology was produced with the support of the Division of Humanities at the University of Dundee. Particular thanks to Cicely Farrer (Hospitalfield), Blythe Stockdale (Arbroath 2020) and the wonderful visitor services staff at Arbroath Abbey.