Canongate: Life Begins at 40

Canongate are a true Scottish success story. Founded in 1973, they were for many years a small, but well-respected independent publisher, producing limited print-runs and enjoying their greatest degree of renown for Alasdair Gray's magnum opus, Lanark. Fast-forward to 1994 and they are bought-out by current Managing Director Jamie Byng, ushering in a new age of cutting-edge imprints, international bestsellers and publisher of the year awards.

Always ahead of the curve, it should come as no surprise that they're using their 40th birthday as a way to celebrate the creative writers most likely to dominate the next 40 years of culture and speculate how 'the book' might continue to evolve and diversify. For this 'Storytellers of the Future' project, The Skinny has been enlisted to help find the 40 best up-and-coming storytellers across the creative spectrum. From producers of the written word, through to filmmakers, musicians, artists and game designers, the project aims to highlight and discover the very best 'creative writers' working in Scotland today.

And how are we going to find this top 40? Well, by asking those creative organisations and individuals currently at the top of their game who they see as inheritors of their storytelling crowns. In collaboration with The Skinny, Canongate are asking masters in their field to identify the next generation and so far their roster is pretty damn impressive. 

Recently shortlisted for the Turner Prize, David Shrigley is a visual artist renowned for the dry wit of his multi-disciplinary work. No stranger to collaboration outside his medium, he has produced music videos for Blur and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, as well as working with David Byrne and Hot Chip on Worried Noodles, an album that saw musicians transform his writings into lyrics. It would be an impossibility to predict who an artist working in such cross-disciplinary ways will nominate, but we look forward to finding out.

From the world of music itself, Aidan Moffat has signed up, the former Arab Strap man prepared to offer wisdom on who he sees as dominating the Scottish and international music scenes in years to come. Other names confirmed include film director Mark Cousins; Judith Doherty, Chief Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron Theatre Company; Nick Barley, director of Edinburgh International Book Festival; and Francis Bickmore, fiction editor at Canongate itself.

Perhaps most exciting from the world of books are the authors Michel Faber and Canongate stalwart, Alasdair Gray. Gray is a true heavyweight of the Scottish literary and arts scenes, penning, in Lanark, quite probably the most celebrated literary Scottish novel of the last 25 years. Faber is the author of the roundly praised, adapted-for-TV, The Crimson Petal and the White and will also be reading alongside William McIlvanney in a landmark September launch event for the Top 40 hosted by South Bank's poet-in-residence Lemn Sissay. Canongate promise this night will feature appearances from a selection of the 40, alongside an eclectic mix of music, art, spoken word, complementing the bleeding of forms the project seeks to encourage.

In more immediately exciting news, the publisher has also specially commisioned a book of short stories to further commemorate their 40 years. Featuring Canongate authors such as Geoff Dyer, Patrick Ness, Philip Pullman, and David Eagleman, this collection will be free and published this month. Full details can be found on their website. In fact, if you head over there mid-July you should find the project up-and-running, with further digital content from the authors in the anthology, as well as opportunities for you to get involved.

That's because, not wanting to leave any stone unturned, Canongate are also seeking submissions from up-and-coming artists, working across any medium, that they may have missed. Think you're going to dominate your field for the next 40 years and want an opportunity to show the world why? Go to canongate.tv/40 for the chance to be one of the chosen writing stars of the future. You could even be one of the Top 40 who end up working with an existing Canongate author on a brand new, exclusively-commisioned work for the project. Best of luck!