Through Creative Futures, Creative Scotland supports the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship,initiated in 1994 by Franki Fewkes, a Scottish RLS enthusiast then living in France.

The aims of the Fellowship

The Fellowship, created as a memorial in the centenary year of the death of RLS, allows writers to:
• take time away from their usual environment to develop their work
• embark upon a new literary venture
• meet other artists and exchange ideas and experiences
• absorb new cultural and social influences.

The 2012 Fellowship provides, for up to three writers a year, accommodation for up to six weeks in a self-catering studio apartment at the Hôtel Chevillon International Arts Centre at Grez-sur- Loing. Travel and accommodation are paid for, and there is a grant of £300 per week to cover living expenses.

The RLS Fellowship 2012 is supported through the Creative Futures programme.

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Applicants must:

• be published writers who are based in Scotland
• not be in full-time education
• not be currently in receipt of a Scottish Arts Council/Creative Scotland bursary, grant or fellowship for 2010/11
• be free to travel to France and take up residency for a period between May and September 2012.

Submissions 

Applicants must:
• submit not more than 3,000 words of original work (in progress or recently published) – priority will be given to fiction, poetry, drama, travel or children’s writing
• provide a brief statement explaining the potential benefits of the Fellowship in relation to their creative development

Assessment of applications

The judges’ assessment of the submissions will involve the following criteria:
• quality of work
• usefulness of the residency to the applicant’s creative development
• statement of intent and reasons for going to France. The decision of the judging panel is final.

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How to apply

Please apply with samples of work by email rls@creativescotland.com or post:

Emma Turnbull
Creative Scotland
Waverley Gate
2-4 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh EH1 3EG

You must include following information: 

Full name:
Address: Tel (day):
Tel (evening):
Email address:
Place of birth:
or Number of years resident in Scotland:
Current employment:

Literary CV please submit (typed and suitable for photocopying, not stapled):
• one, or more, examples of recent work, not exceeding 3,000 words in all
• a short outline of your writing career to date (maximum one A4 page)
• a brief statement outlining the likely benefits of the Fellowship to your individual creative development
• details of where you heard about the Fellowship

Closing date: Friday 16 March 2012

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The place

Grez-sur-Loing is situated at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, France, and was chosen because of its connections with Robert Louis Stevenson who first visited in 1875. It was there, at the Hôtel Chevillon, that he met his future wife Fanny Osbourne. Stevenson found both the place, and its well-established community of writers and artists, highly attractive and he returned to Grez-sur-Loing for three successive summers. More recently, because of the Swedish connection (August Strindberg and Carl Larsson, among others, spent time there) a Swedish consortium bought and restored the Hôtel Chevillon. Six apartments, two single rooms and two specially-adapted workshops have been created.
Hôtel Chevillon is run by The Foundation Grez-sur-Loing in Sweden: www.grez-stiftelsen.se

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picture: courtesy of The Writers’ Museum, the City of Edinburgh Council