Bridging Time is part of the North Bridge Refurbishment Arts Legacy and Community Benefits Programme and ‘If this bridge could talk: past, present, future’ , supported by the City of Edinburgh Council.
Bridging Time is a project where local Edinburgh writers with links to the North Bridge participated in three creative writing workshops across two groups, and created work to be published in an anthology – here’s the book…
Coming Soon!
North Bridge: Where We Travelled
Fiction, poetry, a script & a game inspired by the North Bridge from 22 Edinburgh writers.
Sign up here to be notified when North Bridge: Where We Travelled is available to buy (and our book launch events).
Contributors
Contributors include: ABS, Brynn P, Catherine Wilson Garry, Elspeth Wilson, Ema Smekalová, Jay Garfield Oliver, Jeda Pearl, Kate Wilkinson, Leilani Taneus-Miller, Lesa Ng, Margherita Still, Maria Conte, Nazaret Ranea, Rachel Gorry, Rachel McBrinn, Sandy Bennett-Haber, Sonny, Tamzin McDonald, Toni De Luca, Zain Rishi.
Edited by Jeda Pearl. Cover artwork & design: Kezia Lewis. Interior Layout: Duncan Lockerbie.
North Bridge: Where We Travelled is a multi-genre anthology inspired by Edinburgh’s North Bridge. Genres include historical, sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary, and memoir. We have experimental forms, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, visual art, a script and a game!
Author bios
ABS is a creative technologist, game designer, producer and writer. An interdisciplinary collaborator in live events, immersive experiences, game development and genre fiction/psychogeography/TTRPGs. He enjoys engaging with people/places and history/culture – accessibly and sustainably. He is the founder of the Edinburgh based morefunwith.games and can be found going on abs.ventures. BlueSky: ab5.bsky.social | Mastodon: @ABS | Instagram: @_a_b_5_ | Websites: abs.ventures morefunwith.games
Brynn P is a Scottish artist and aspiring author. They like to explore themes of trauma and self-discovery and will play with the genres of surrealism/ absurdism, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy.
Catherine Wilson Garry is a poet and writer. Her debut poetry pamphlet Another Word for Home is Blackbird was published by Stewed Rhubarb Press. She has been highly commended by the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2024 and the Bridport Poetry Prize. Instagram: @CWilsonPoet | Website: cwilsonpoet.co.uk
Elspeth Wilson is a writer interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body. Her pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, is published by Written Off Publishing. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster in 2025. She can often be found in the sea. Instagram: @elspethwrites | Website: elspethwilson.co.uk
Ema Smekalová is a writer from Prague based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their work explores ideas of belonging and alienation through speculative fiction, food and memes. Their writing has appeared in The Skinny. Instagram: @emaaa.s
Jay Garfield Oliver… British born, Jamaican raised, Scottish based, polymath and magpie. Their work emphasises a fascination with layers, colour, texture, time, process, waste, interrogating ‘sustainability’ and the value of THINGS. Jay believes in the Socratic method… ‘the more we think we know, just proves that we know so little’.
Jeda Pearl is a Scottish Jamaican writer and arts programmer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work was shortlisted by RSL Jerwood Poetry Award 2024 & Sky Arts RSL Award 2022, and longlisted by BSFA 2024 & Women Poets’ Prize 2022. Her poems and stories appear in art installations and several anthologies, and her debut poetry collection, Time Cleaves Itself, is published by Peepal Tree Press. BlueSky: jedapearl.bsky.social | Instagram: @JedaPearl
Kate Wilkinson is a writer based in Edinburgh, who writes creative non-fiction about violence, nature and home. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction and published by Bandit Fiction. She is currently on the MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Instagram: @_kate.wilkinson
Leilani Taneus-Miller is a Haitian-American writer based in Edinburgh. An Alexander Dixon Scholar at University of Glasgow’s creative writing programme, her work has appeared in public campaigns, bookshops and anthologies. She is drawn to research and programming on: the art of migration communities, regeneration of Afro-Caribbean archives, and narrative voice in diasporic literature and theatre. Instagram: @leilani_taneusmiller
Lesa Ng is an Edinburgh based Glaswegian, librarian, poet, and writer. Her work is published in the Responders of Colour Annual (2022) and Covert Literary Magazine (2024). She appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022 and 2023 and at Book Fringe: the ALT Edition in 2024. Instagram: @mrmacwolfy
Margherita Still is an Italian Scottish writer who lives in Edinburgh. She has an MA Creative Writing from Napier University, where she studied Industrial Design in the eighties. Her desire to write was sparked when she recognised her accent in Bill Forsyth films, and realised her voice was validated. Instagram: @maggiestillwrites
Maria Conte is a Spanish writer based in Edinburgh. She has worked in dance and was co-director of Hispanic Festival over a period of ten years.
Nazaret Ranea is a poet and zine maker recognised as one of Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars. Her poetry is known for its lyrical exploration of themes such as nostalgia, memory, and the concept of home. She is the author of the zines My Men & My Women and editor of For Those Who Tend the Soil. IG: @nazareterreese | X: @NazaretRanea | FB: Nazaret Ranea | nazaretranea.com
Rachel Gorry is a keen writer of short stories. Currently living in Glasgow, she is developing her debut novel. As well as writing, Rachel is a lover of anime, video-gaming and music-making.
Rachel McBrinn is an Edinburgh-based artist and filmmaker. Her projects often build upon long term site-responsive and archival research. Recent work has formed around themes of land management, town planning, urban and rural ecologies. Alongside collaborator Jonathan Webb, in 2024-25 she is developing a moving image commission in response to the North Bridge refurbishment. Instagram: @rachel_mcbrinn | Website: rachelmcbrinn.com
Sandy Bennett-Haber is an Edinburgh based Australian writer, mother and wild swimmer. She is currently writing a speculative fiction novel. Sandy is a founder member of the Women Writers Network and has previously been selected for the Creative Scotland Our Voices program and longlisted for the Primadonna Prize. BlueSky: @sandybennett-haber.bsky.social| Instagram: @sandybennetthaber | Website: sandybennetthaber.com
Sonny is a proud team member at Invisible Cities. He enjoys giving walking tours of his city, Edinburgh, that show sides of the capital that will amaze you! Sonny writes about his life experiences, including homelessness, and is working on his memoir. Website: invisible-cities.org
Tamzin McDonald is a Trinidadian writer, artist and activist based in Scotland. She uses her lived experience to consult on a variety of issues ranging from racism, poverty, disabilities to substance abuse and mental health. Her work highlights the Indo Caribbean experience in the UK. She lives with her family in Midlothian
Toni De Luca is a Scottish Italian poet and writer of creative non fiction. She writes about inner journeys, our relationship with ourselves and others and nature. Instagram: @toni_she_writes | Substack: tonideluca.substack.com
Zain Rishi is a writer based in Edinburgh. He won First Prize in the Earthings, Buildings Competition through the Young Poet’s Network and Third Prize in the 2024 Oxford Poetry Prize. His poetry has featured in Gutter, Propel and The Inkwell. He is working on his debut poetry pamphlet. Instagram: @zain.rishi
About the Bridging Time project
Three workshops, two groups, 24 participants – all local people living or working nearby or with connections to the North Bridge, Edinburgh. An invite called out to people from underrepresented backgrounds to ensure we included disabled, LGBTQIA+, Black, people of colour, people with experience of poverty or homelessness, and working class voices.
Workshop themes explored available historical archives (visual, recorded, text-based) to investigate links with colonial histories; experiences of working on the refurbishment, or living or working nearby the North Bridge; items, knowledge and histories uncovered during the refurbishment; alongside fantastical and science fictional methods to facilitate and create new works.
Editorial support to submit pieces – all participants who submitted work would be published.
Free copies of the book distributed to Edinburgh libraries, schools and community centres.
A copy of the book will be placed in the time capsule.
Workshops
1. Passing Place
“What North Bridge means to me” (personal experiences, memories)
Bridge as metaphor:
- Bridge as journey (in between place, transition, way through, crossing)
- Bridge as connector (communicator, physical links, meeting place, understanding)
- Bridges symbolise passages: of time, or place, of ideas
2. North Bridge – Where We Travelled
- History of North Bridge (it was built to link the Old Town with the New Town
- Colonial links during 18th and 19th centuries
- What North Bridge’s past means to me (as an individual)
- What I want our society to know about North Bridge’s past
3. (North) Bridge to the Future
- North Bridge 2525 – imagining the North Bridge in 500 years time (people, modes of transport, meaning of place)
- Alternate sci-fi or fantastical universes
- Revisiting previous exercises and choosing pieces to work on
Project aims
- Two groups of up to 12 people participate in the workshop series.
- Contributors are people working on the North Bridge renovations and people who reside or work nearby, or have connections to the bridge. Priority places given to people who are under-represented in Scottish literature or marginalised by society, for example: working class people; people with experience of poverty, homelessness, or racism; disabled people; Black people, people of colour; members of the LGBTQ+ community.
- Most participants contributed one piece of writing to be published in the printed book and are invited to read their work on/under/near the North Bridge. Jeda provided developmental editorial support as needed and requested.
- All contributors paid for their published work.
- All participants receive 2 copies. Free copies distributed to Edinburgh libraries, schools and community centres. Additional copies sold to help fund remaining costs.
- This project is part of the North Bridge Refurbishment Arts Legacy and Community Benefits Programme.
- Hopefully also a captioned and BSL-translated video recording of contributors reading their work (reading ‘performance’ support provided).
Partners & Acknowledgements
Thank you to the City of Edinburgh Council for believing in and funding the Bridging Time project, and to partners Balfour Beatty and the North Bridge refurbishment team for access to the site, schematics and relevant materials. Thank you to The Crannie and Southside Community Centre for warm places for us to gather, and the Make Space initiative from the Creative Community Hubs Network. Thank you to Leilani Taneus-Miller for support with the exhibition, to Kezia Lewis for a wicked cover design, and to Duncan Lockerbie for typesetting, internal layout & publishing support. Finally, big up Jonathan James for campaigning for a suite of arts projects for and by the local community, and to all workshop participants and contributors – this book would not exist without you!
Events – Safer Spaces
- Whatever our roles or seniority in work or life, the writing workshop is a space where everyone is treated equally and all contributions are treated with equal respect.
- You do not have to read out your writing – you can share a reflection on the exercise instead.
- Feedback is given through positive comments: what you like about someone’s piece of writing and why.
- Some of us experience different kinds of oppression and violence at the same time. We commit to not reproduce: ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, misgendering, misogyny, racism including anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, colourism, Islamophobia; xenophobia. Verbal or physical abuse, or hate speech will not be tolerated.
