Friends

A K Bell Library,
York Place,
Perth PH2 8EP
t: +44 (0)1738 477062
e:Local Studies

The Soutar House,
27 Wilson Street,
Perth PH2 0EX
t: +44 (0)1738 643687

Friends of William Soutar Society

FoWSS was created in May 2007 as part of an initiative led by Ajay Close, the Soutar Writer in Residence. FoWSS was accepted as a registered charity by OSCR in December 2007. The main objects of FoWSS are to advance education, the arts, heritage and culture through:

• promoting the work of William Soutar, making his name more familiar to the general public in Scotland and beyond
• bringing his poetry to a new readership using a variety of channels
• gaining wider recognition of his contribution to the Scots language and its literature

FoWSS intends to carry out artistic, literary and scholarly activities to support these objects. This will include research, holding talks and lectures, public readings, dramatic performances, visual arts, publishing new anthologies and works, extending schools' curricula and materials, and supporting new creative writing inspired by Soutar and his birthplace. The current office bearers of FoWSS are:

• President: Iain Mackintosh
• Secretary: Ajay Close
• Treasurer: Jim Carruthers

Soutar Spectacular

Funding has been provided by Awards for All, Scottish Enterprise Tayside, the Perth Common Good Fund and the PKC Financial Assistance Panel to help stage the first major event organised by FoWSS. This will comprise a mixed-media production staged in three Perth locations, performed by a community-based cast of adults and schoolchildren. The cast will be assisted by a professional writer, actor, and dance choreographer, plus a Scots language expert. The programme will include dream sequences based round Soutar's life as an invalid and his relationships with women; recitals of his bairnrhymes by children of Craigie Primary School; and wordless interpretation of his eldritch poems featuring son et lumiere, live drumming, dance and movement, plus community art project props.