Canongate lists '40 Scottish storytellers of the future'

Canongate has announced The Future 40, the list of 40 Scottish storytellers it believes will dominate the next 40 years of creative life in the country.

The independent publisher teamed up with The Skinny magazine to create The Future 40 (below in full), to celebrate its own 40th anniversary.

Creative organisations and individuals from across Scotland were invited to submit their suggestions, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Glasgow College of Contemporary Art, theatre company Grid Iron and authors Alasdair Gray and Jackie Kay.

The final list includes writers, poets, scriptwriters, filmmakers and artists.

The publisher said: "There are many ways to tell a story, whether via the written word or through performance poetry, music, art, film, animation, graphic novels or digital media. The way we create, consume and interact with books is constantly evolving and we wanted to explore what could happen next. We believe these 40 storytellers, selected by the top creative minds in Scotland, will lead the way."

Listed storytellers include novelist Jenni Fagan, whose novel The Panopticon (William Heinemann) was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, with the author named as one of Granta Magazine's Best of Young British Novelists. Neil Forsyth, whose books revolve around his character Bob Servant battling internet scammers, published by independent Scottish publisher Birlinn, has also been listed. The list also includes poets Michael Pederson and William Letford.

Publishing director Francis Bickmore told The Skinny: “We didn't want it [the list] to be too nostalgic and backslapping, and for us the interesting thing was looking ahead to the new forms which storytelling could take over the next 40 years...The mission was to find people who haven't quite popped up onto the mainstream radar yet, but are likely to be the ones to watch for exciting narrative ideas over the coming years....More than ever the role of the author is one that can extend out of the writer's study and into the world – interacting with people in an immersive way is a feature of a lot of the artists – a buzzword would be engagement. How writers engage with their audience and interact, and that is something we are wrestling with as a culture but is certainly going to have an effect on storytelling.”

The Future 40 will be launched officially at live event Canongate Presents …The Other Side: A Night of Stories, Sights and Sounds, to be held in Edinburgh on 19th September.

Canongate's top 40:

Alasdair Brotherston & Jock Mooney – Animation/Illustration
Jenni Fagan – Novels/Short Stories
Rob Williams – TV
Rachel Maclean – Visual Art
Paul Wright – Film
RM Hubbert – Music
Donna Leishman – Games/Digital
Neil Forsyth – Books/TV
Gill Hatcher (Team Girl) – Comics/Graphic Novels
Yann Seznac (Lucky Frame) – Games/Digital
Will Morris – Comics/Graphic Novels
Alasdair Roberts – Music
Simon Meek (The Story Mechanics) – Games/Digital
Michael Pederson – Poetry/Spoken Word
William Letford – Poetry
Kirsty Logan – Short Stories/Journalism
Tom DeMajo (Quartic Llama) – Games/Digital
Fielding Hope – Music
James Graham (The Twilight Sad) – Music
Ryan Van Winkle – Spoken Word/Poetry
Finn den Hertog – Theatre
Tom Gauld – Illustration/Comics
Kieran Hurley – Theatre
Sandra Marrs & John Chalmers (metaphrog) – Comics/Graphic Novels
Matt Hulse – Film
Morna Pearson – Theatre
Joyce Gunn Cairns – Visual Art
William Goldsmith – Comics/Graphic Novels
Emma Davie – Film
Shona Reppe – Theatre/Puppetry
Maria Fusco – Visual Art
Harlequinade (Alasdair Maloney) – Spoken Word/Film/Theatre/Music
Tommy Dutch (Too Much Fun Club) – Visual Art/Performance
Eleanor Thom – Novels/Short Stories
Ruth Barker – Visual Art/Literature/Performance
Will Anderson – Animation
Rob Drummond – Theatre
Texture – Spoken Word/Hip-Hop/Journalism
Ruth Paxton – Film/TV/Visual Art
Rabiya Choudhry – Visual Art