Elsewhere: Commissioned Writing

We commissioned fifty authors to write short stories or essays on the theme of ‘Elsewhere’. Leading writers for adults and children from across the world took part and their wonderfully engaging and varied writing is available for you to read and download here. Many of the authors have also recorded podcasts of their work which you can find in our audio gallery and on iTunes.

Supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.

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Of all the Faces in the World, Your Face
Of all the Faces in the World, Your Face by James Hopkin

Speak to me. Ok, if you can’t speak, then sing, whisper, moan or sigh! I know you can do it! You have been keeping me up at night with your curses and imprecations…

Shenandoah
Shenandoah by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Life gets interesting when a mysterious group of exchange students unexpectedly arrive at school…

Elsewhere is Aways Waiting
Elsewhere is Aways Waiting by William McIlvanney

A woman is ripped from her life of domestic banality by an unexpected knock on her front door…

Flotsam & Jetsam
Flotsam & Jetsam by Alan Bissett

With the cool surf nosing at her feet and the sky yawning blue, she felt dreamy and liquid, her imagination uncurling from the trap Glasgow had made for it…

Seven Questions about the Journey
Seven Questions about the Journey by Don Paterson

Why are we leaving in such unreadiness?... A new poem by Don Paterson is cause for celebration, and this one has been commissioned specially as part of our Elsewhere project of new writing…

Welcome to Flaxland
Welcome to Flaxland by Andy Stanton

Flaxland! The very name conjures up images of romantic midnight trysts, tiny state-subsidised oranges, and somebody saying ‘Flaxland’…

The Elsewhere Genie
The Elsewhere Genie by John Fardell

There was once an island which had only two inhabitants: an ogre, and his slave…

After Drink You Can Turn Earth Up Side Down
After Drink You Can Turn Earth Up Side Down by Rodge Glass

In this club in downtown Hong Kong the waitresses never let your glass get below midway before offering you another drink. They all look eighteen or nineteen. They all look good…

The art of elsewhere
The art of elsewhere by Ali Smith

I’ve been trying to go elsewhere all my life. Last year, I went all over the place. I went to Greece, I went to France, I went to Holland, I went to Morocco, I went to…

The Future According to Luke
The Future According to Luke by James Robertson

Luke Stands Alone was the worst prophet in the history of the Lakota people. He went into trances and when he came out of them he would say…

On the shoulders of others
On the shoulders of others by Theresa Breslin

When the tour buses halted at the cotton fields beyond Samarkand it was Ramil who was always first to break off working…

Because it’s a Wednesday
Because it’s a Wednesday by A L Kennedy

A whole new meaning given to 'Elsewhere' by the Costa prize-winner…

A Flash of Blue Light
A Flash of Blue Light by Michel Faber

“I was abducted by aliens,” the woman with the foreign accent told the policeman at the desk…

The things I brought with me when I knew we were leaving home forever
The things I brought with me when I knew we were leaving home forever by Jenny Valentine

My grandmother was the thinnest woman I ever knew. Her ankles stuck like reeds from the dark, weighted pools of her shoes…

South
South by Gillian Philip

Ice lies in a thin slick across the bay, but he’s in the water anyway. The boy always is. Just like his grandmother…

Kindred
Kindred by Jackie Kay

Being dead is not at all like I imagined when I was a kid. I imagined the dead would be pale and quiet, and that if they walked at all, they’d walk like zombies…

Archipelago
Archipelago by Marcus Sedgwick

Becca shrieks. Just once, and then is still. Everyone looks at her to see what is wrong; her eyes are wide and she is pointing at Niall, or rather, just over his shoulder…

The Ballad of Jemmy Button
The Ballad of Jemmy Button by Julia Donaldson

Around Cape Horn the wind howls cold; the glaciers meet the sea. A captain came with button box to bid for natives three…

Marilyn's Hands
Marilyn's Hands by Gill Arbuthnott

Marilyn lay in some clinic, pierced by tubes, wrapped in sterile air, quiescent. Waiting to pass on her identity. Waiting to pass on her face…

The Unclaimed Girl
The Unclaimed Girl by Barry Hutchison

Imelda Brown stood on the platform, wondering what the hell was going on. She had just stepped off a train, which was confusing, as she had no memory of stepping on one…