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Online Writer in Residence

Scottish Book Trust is thrilled to have Keith Gray, one of the UK’s finest authors for young adults, as our first virtual writer-in-residence.

New Story:
Whose Face Do You See? by Melvin Burgess

Introduction by Keith Gray

How difficult is it to write an introduction to the writer Melvin Burgess? Very.

He is without doubt one of the UK's best known and most successful writers for young people. He is also perhaps the most contorversial author we've asked to write a story for us, with several of his books raising eyebrows and hackles of teachers, librarians and parents. For my money, he's the kind of author who finds it almost impossible to write a dull sentence. He can write disturbingly realistic fiction like Junk, brilliantly twisted fables like Lady: My Life As A Bitch and thought-provoking fantasy such as Bloodtide and Bloodsong. I can't think of a better author to bring to a close our series of exclusive short stories.

In fact, I really hope you've enjoyed reading all of the Virtual Writer in Residence exclusive short stories as much as we have here at SBT. Many thanks to all of the authors for taking part. But let's leave the last word to Melvin and Whose Face Do You See?

Read Whose Face Do You See? by Melvin Burgess here

Keith's intro to the virtual writer-in-residence project

Keith is the author of the Costa-nominated new novel Ostrich Boys.

'So this is it, it all starts here. Not only Scottish Book Trust's first ever virtual writer in residence, but what we think is the world's first ever online writing residency of this kind.

'Over the next few months you'll be able to download exclusive video clips of me talking about the inspiration behind my work and ideas for creative writing. Towards the summer I'll be posting notes to help you write your own stories, and then you can enter our writing competition where the winning story will be published in a national newspaper.

'But if you're more of a reader than a writer, be sure to sign up for some exclusive stories. Every other month I'll be asking a top author to contribute a brand new story to this site and these stories can be sent straight to your inbox. You can be the first to read the best fiction by the best writers.'