SLS Fellowship

I am really surprised to hear that I’ve been awarded a Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship. It has been awarded on the strength of an excerpt from my novel which I submitted to SLS in February (obviously I was hoping, although not expecting, to win the full amount, but you have to try don’t you?). SLS is rooted in Montreal’s Concordia University and has been running these seminars in ‘edgy’ places for some years. The fellowship is a part-payment to one of their seminars either in Africa or Lithuania. I would really like to go to Lithuania because it has had a fascinating and troubled history and I think the course would generate a great deal of interesting work, but I’d have to find the rest of the money, and it’s a lot! The seminar comprises an intensive two weeks of workshops in Vilnius with input from Lithuanian writers as well as many others from around the world. I’ll have to look hard at my finances!