The search to find the first George Mackay Brown Writing Fellow is over.

Orkney-based writer, Pam Beasant, has been appointed to the post following significant interest from around the world.

Pam is a long-term resident of Stromness - George Mackay Brown’s home and where the fellowship will be based, in Stromness Library.

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council’s partners artist residency programme, Orkney’s Community Economic Development programme and Orkney Islands Council’s arts development service, the Fellowship will run throughout 2007 as a part of Orkney’s Highland 2007 community programme celebrations.

Pam will now divide her time developing her own work and developing and delivering community based projects. She said:

“Linking the Fellowship with GMB’s name makes it an appropriate memorial to him while the wider aim - to promote all forms of writing in Orkney and bring in fresh new voices - is a huge challenge. The scope is so wide it is terrifying although that’s what makes it exciting! The Fellowship allows time and space for me to develop my own writing, and I am very proud to be the first GMB Fellow, and look forward to a hard-working and enormously fulfilling year.”

Clare Gee, Arts Development Officer at Orkney Islands Council, and manager of the Fellowship said: “We’re delighted to have appointed such a strong, talented and varied writer to the post. The Fellowship will create and deliver an innovative array of community based writing projects throughout the year, which will directly benefit many people in Orkney, as support Pam in her personal development as a writer. It will also strengthen Orkney’s reputation for literature and its writers. This important project has national and international significance in the literary world, but also a local and personal aspect to it too.”

Alistair Peebles, Literature Representative and Chair of the Orkney Arts Forum, said: “I welcome Pam’s appointment wholeheartedly, as I do the commitment shown by all the funding partners, not least by Orkney Islands Council, and by many others who have contributed. Of all the art forms, writing is perhaps what Orkney is best known for, and George Mackay Brown’s work and the work of writers who came before him certainly deserves to be recognised in this way.”

Becky Ford of Stromness Library, where the fellowship will be based, said: “I am delighted that Pam will be based at the Stromness Library for the Fellowship. The Library already hosts enthusiastic reading and writing groups which will benefit enormously from the input of a professional writer. The development of the relationship between the library and the Fellowship opens up exciting opportunities for the future support and promotion of writing in Orkney.”

If you are interested in being involved in the programme contact Clare Gee at Orkney Islands Council, on 01856 873535.