Laura Hird

Laura Hird is the award-winning author of the collections Nail and Other Stories (Canongate, 1997) and Hope and Other Urban Tales (Canongate, 2006). Her novel Born Free (Canongate, 2007) was nominated for the Whitbread and Orange prizes. Her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies internationally and her work has been translated into a number of European languages. A book based around her mother’s letters, Dear Laura, was published by Canongate in March 2007. Most recently, her work featured in Protest: Stories of Resistance (Comma Press, 2017).

For 8 years, Laura managed an international arts-related website on which she sought out and published new poetry, short stories, reviews, interviews, etc. A regular tutor for the Arvon Foundation and the Scottish Book Trust, she also works as a writing mentor and teaches creative writing in secondary schools and colleges throughout the UK. In 1999 she was Scottish writer-in-residence at Cove Park in Argyll and Bute. She was born and lives in Edinburgh.

An award-winning writer and former RLF Fellow at Queen Margaret University from 2008-11, Laura joined the Bridge in 2016. The first member of her family to attend university, she enjoys helping pupils feel more confident about their writing and therefore better equipped to face the same daunting jump in expectations that she did. Through Bridge, she has run workshops in schools in Islay, Ayrshire, the Borders and throughout Edinburgh and been involved with LEAPS Summer School and personal statement writing days. In 2017, she followed Bill Kirton as coordinator of Bridge in Scotland. With the inspiration and support of the team and the RLF, she hopes to encourage more schools to take advantage of this vital, forward-looking project.