Always on
This project successfully funded on 28th May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
The Sheila Templeton Bursary
Stonehaven, United Kingdom
Aim
Bursary in memory of much-admired Scottish poet Sheila Templeton to enable two young poets to take part in the Wee Gaitherin Festival
The Wee Gaitherin is Scotland's most democratic poetry festival – offering a forum for poets from the renowned to the unknown, of all ages and backgrounds, to read, perform and share their work on an equal footing.
This year – 2026 – the free festival will take place over three days from 3rd to 5th September, in the coastal town of Stonehaven, with an emphasis on promoting new and challenging poetry in an entertaining environment.
As part of our ethos, we're keen to promote the work of younger-generation poets, particularly those under-represented in the arts, and to help them achieve exposure to wider audiences. In 2024 we inaugurated a bursary in honour of the late and much-admired poet Sheila Templeton. Sheila was renowned for her powerfully evocative poetry and also for her generosity as an advocate for other poets – especially those of working-class backgrounds. In that same spirit, our bursary awards funding to two young poets to travel to and stay in Stonehaven for the festival, plus a reading payment.
Our aim with the Sheila Templeton Bursary is to promote new and emerging young writers who might struggle to attend the festival without financial support, and to champion their work.
Two of our first Sheila Templeton Bursary winners in 2024 – Eleanor Tennyson and Nazaret Ranea – immediately went on from the festival to be offered publications deals with Drunk Muse Press.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made