The Andrew Tannahill Fund for the Furtherance of Scottish Literature

A generous endowment fund for the furtherance of Scottish Literature was established at Glasgow University in 2006. The core-fund of £50,000, despite the credit crunch and the global tsunami of economic stricture, has allowed us sufficient credit to begin work in a number of different ways, to push the subject of Scottish literature further, in scholarly, research-based, educational and teaching-based activities, and in support of contemporary creative writing. In an era when the arts are so often seriously neglected or trivialised, this is a remarkable opportunity to highlight and develop the work the arts can do, crucially in education and creativity.

Through a range of activities, the Fund has been visibly supporting the engagements of contemporary writing and cultural debate, historical scholarship from the twenty-first back to the fourteenth centuries and further, as well as various forms of publication, helping to ‘get the message out’!

The Tannahill Fund was established by Dr Mabel Tannahill, herself a graduate of the University of Glasgow, in memory of her father Andrew Tannahill, and was launched with a handsome publication of his selected poems, songs and translations, A Tapsalteerie Touer (Kettillonia). This may be purchased from Kettillonia publications (www.kettillonia.co.uk).  The launch, resoundingly supported by the then Principal, Sir Muir Russell, preceded the first of a series of lectures marking the initiation of the celebrated Robert Burns Centre at Glasgow University and endorsed the connections between Burns's eighteenth-century and Andrew Tannahill's twentieth-century work as popular and politically-engaged song-writers.

Building on this, the Fund will support further annual lectures on the interconnectedness of Scottish Literature and the other arts, individual research students' bursaries at Glasgow University, subsidies towards creative writing colloquia, scholarly research and publications, literary festivals and commemorations such as the Norman MacCaig Centenary Celebration in Lochinver, Assynt, in November 2010 and the annual Andrew Tannahill Debate at the Aye Write! Literary Festival in Glasgow (the first, in 2010, was on the topic of Scottish literature and education; the second, on Heroes and Villains in Scottish Crime Fiction, takes place in March 2011).

Support has been given to the Creative Writing Word Festival at Glasgow's Mitchell Library for an exhibition of work to accompany various readings and panel discussions that took place in September 2008, including the memorable discussion on 'The Craft of Writing' with participants including Tom Leonard, Kei Miller and Michael Schmidt, chaired by Keith Bruce of The Herald.  Support was also provided to the Colloquium for Renaissance Studies, which brought together scholars from Glasgow's Scottish and English Literature Departments as well as researchers from Aberdeen, Stirling and other universities, including international scholars from around the world.

The Tannahill Fund then initiated a series of lectures in 2009 on the interconnectedness of Scottish literature and other arts in an international context.  The first of the annual Andrew Tannahill Lectures, 'Scottish Literature / Visual Art: A Caledonian Synergy', was delivered by Professor Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee, in Autumn 2009.   The second, Dr John Purser's lecture, 'Scottish literature and Music: A Bardic Inheritance', took place on 10 February 2011.

For funding 2011-12, applications should be sent to Professor Alan Riach, Scottish Literature, 7 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH, by 30 August 2011.  (Decisions are normally reached within six weeks following the funding deadline.)  There is no standard application form, but applicants should provide as much information as possible about themselves, their project, estimated overall costs and what, specifically, the amount applied for would be spent on.  Awards are usually made of sums between £100 and £2000, but awards of more than £500 are exceptional.

It is hoped that as the Fund grows it will be able to extend its support across a range of activities related to Scottish literature and language, and to this end donations from all interested parties would be gratefully received and acknowledged. For further information, please contact David Miller in the University of Glasgow Alumni Office, e-mail: David.A.Miller@glasgow.ac.uk.