Letting Go Round Table & Anthology Launch

Letting Go Round Table & Anthology Launch | Autumn Voices

Wednesday 24 June 2026, 10.30–15.30

The Barracks, Forthside Way, Stirling FK8 1QZ and Online

Join us at The Barracks in Stirling for our Letting Go RoundTable Anthology Launch! Attend in-person or online. See you there! ✨

LETTING GO is a programme of creative writing activities for older people in Scotland, developed and delivered by Autumn Voices, running from September 2025 until June 2026. Activities have been facilitated by four Online Writers-in-Residence (OWRs) – Moira Forsyth, Sukhema Butler, Anna Levin and Sandra Ireland. Each OWR has presented four sessions –three writing workshops, and a reading.

The Round Table brings together the four writers to reflect on the project, on the idea of;Letting Go and on older people's creativity more generally.

On the day we’ll also be launching a new anthology with work by each OWR, and by their workshop participants.

Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided.

Free, donations welcome.

If you're unable to come in person, you will be able to join us online.

Outline programme

10.30 Registration, tea/coffee

11.00 Welcome and Introduction

11.15 Presentations by the OWRs

12.15 Anthology launch, with readings from contributors

13.00 Lunch

13.45 Panel discussion

14.45 Closing remarks

15.00 Tea & coffee

For more details about the project, see

https://autumnvoices.co.uk/projects/letting-go-2025-26/

LETTING GO is a programme of creative writing activities for older people, developed and delivered by Autumn Voices, and supported by the Creative Scotland Open Fund for Organisations.

The theme of Letting Go is taken from the book by Robin Lloyd-Jones.

Much of our younger lives is about acquiring – acquiring partners, children, a good job, a house, material things. There comes a period in our lives when the scales tip and much of life becomes about letting go – downsizing, coming to terms with loss, letting go of what you can't change and of unrealistic hopes and plans; and letting go of grudges and hatreds because it's now or never. In letting go we help those old doors to close and the new ones to open.

As Robin outlines, while ageing involves loss, it also brings opportunities to let go of what we don't need, whether that's material belongings or emotional baggage, and to discover what in life is truly essential.

Activities are facilitated by four Online Writers-in-Residence (OWRs). Working consecutively, each OWR will present four online sessions – a reading or presentation for an audience of up to 100, and three writing workshops, for a cohort of up to twelve. We will publish an anthology featuring a new piece of writing commissioned from each OWR, and texts submitted by workshop participants. The anthology will be published online and in print, as a free newspaper. The project concludes in June 2026 with a public, hybrid Round Table event in Stirling, with the four OWRs and other speakers reflecting on the project, and considering more broadly the issue of older people's creativity.

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