Three smartphone writing projects win incubator funds

Creative writing incubator Paper Nations, led by Bath Spa University’s TRACE Centre (The Research Centre for Transcultural Creativity and Education), has awarded three funds of up to £5,000 to creative writing-based projects for smartphones.

Novelist Lucy Christopher, shortlisted for the Costa for children’s book Flyaway (Chicken House), is teaming up with technologist Rajiv Edward for project “The Fog” to create a fictionalised city of Bath, using geolocation and other smartphone sensors.

Also receiving funding is theatre maker and games designer Melanie Frances, whose project will take place in a futuristic world; readers will act as the protagonist, a journalist who is investigating a new technology that claims to allow people to see into alternative dimensions.

Finally, playwright  and design studio director Lucy Telling will use e-tickets stored on smartphones to develop an interactive experience “which tells the story behind every ticket, creating an overarching narrative anchored in a sense of place”. Telling’s project-based works include a recreation of two sets from The Muse by Jessie Burton (Picador), using touch technology to trigger audio extracts from the book.

The winners were selected by a panel, including Hachette’s chief innovation officer Maja Thomas and poet Louisa Adjoa Parker, who commented: “The shortlisted applications were all of high quality, with some fantastic, well-thought out ideas. It shows what a pool of talent there is in the region.”

The commissioned winners will showcase their work to international audiences and also write features for The Writing Platform, which shares digital knowledge with writers.

The commission was launched as part of Paper Nations’ Writing for All programme, which aims to increase innovation and diversity by working with writers and organisations at all levels to put in place the infrastructure that will create real change and make writing more accessible to everyone.