Eligible participants should be age 60 or over as of January 2025 and resident in Scotland.

The workshops and reading groups are being provided free of charge, and there is no charge for submitting to the anthology

There is a payment of £50 for the participants in the letter exchange and a £50 fee payable to all writers selected for the anthology.

As we have limited spaces available, we would ask you to choose one activity only – the letter exchange or the writing workshops or the reading group. This will allow us to provide opportunities for as many older participants as possible. All Scottish-based writers of 60+ are welcome to submit work for consideration for the anthology.

No, the selection process for the anthology will be competitive. We expect to be able to able to select 16 writers for inclusion. The selection process will involve the work being read by all members of the project team. We hope to respond to all submissions by the end of September 2025.

The writing workshops will be led by Andrew Meehan from Strathclyde and Jane Archer from Autumn Voices. The reading groups will be led by Meehan and Sukhema from Autumn Voices. The letter exchange will be administered by project leads Meehan and Trish Hafford Letchfield, with Ken Cockburn from Autumn Voices acting as facilitator. The anthology will co-edited by Meehan, Hafford-Letchfield, and Cockburn.

You will be provided with a Participant information sheet (PIS) and consent form providing you with information about the underlying impact project and details of how your text may be used for cultural study.  Any participation is voluntary, and that your consent may be withdrawn at any stage, either before or during or after the letter exchange. We can answer any further questions on loveinlaterlife@strath.ac.uk

This letter exchange is part of a wider impact project conducted by the project team. There is both a short-term and a long-term dissemination strategy. An initial analysis of the raw text after the exchange ends will lead to a report that discusses the results to then feed into a future research protocol and executive summary. At a later stage it is anticipated that the material will also be used in a journal article or monograph. Output will not include any identifiable information. Direct quotations will be carefully used to ensure data cannot be tracked back to an individual. Participants will also be given a short summary of the outcomes (ie. the executive summary) and be invited to comment. Upon completion of the letter exchange, we will also conduct a written evaluation of participant satisfaction with their role in the project overall.

Yes. Each participant will be assigned a unique identifier code and assigned a pseudonym for quoting material. In any written accounts following the letter exchange, participants will be provided pseudonyms in to protect their anonymity, or they will be given a pseudonym and asked to use fictitious names and places in their stories. Anything that may reveal their identity or anyone else’s (personal details, location etc.) should not be disclosed.

To determine the category the participants fall under, we will ask these questions of everyone before they sign-up. How would you best describe your relationship status? If in a relationship, for how long?  If not in a relationship, you may wish to talk about a previous relationship (in later life or before then)?

 We will also provide a short diversity questionnaire and then some questions on relationship status. Including: Age; Sexual and gender identity; Religion; Race/ethnic origin; Disability; Gender.

Copies of the letters/emails in the letter exchange will be kept secure, and password protected.  Any ‘hard copies’ sent in the post will be stored in a locked office belonging to the project lead. Emails received as attachment will be downloaded and stored on One Drive with a password protected computer. It will be only accessible by the project lead, co-lead, and Autumn Voices facilitator. We will use a spreadsheet to track the correspondence using an allocated number for each participant so as to remain anonymous.

While we anticipate therapeutic value in their participation, the project team will also provide participants with a resource sheet for support with any emotional issues that may arise during the letter exchange.