As part of Fun Palaces’ campaign for the widest possible participation in all forms of arts and science, we have again run our WriteScience writing competition.

We asked that writers meet with a scientist – or scientists with a writer – and then write a new piece based on that conversation.

Our judges were novelists Jake Arnott, Val McDermid and Alex Wheatle, spoken word performer and poet Salena Godden, novelist and LittleBrown editor Antonia Hodgson.  We received submissions from across the UK and our judges picked six pieces as their final choice. We have matched these writers and scientists with local Fun Palaces and they are now working with Fun Palaces Makers to share their pieces and to contribute to the Fun Palaces weekend on 1 and 2 October.

Antonia Hodgson, award-winning novelist and Editor-in-Chief at LittleBrown said of the judging process: “It’s great to see how so many of the pieces have really encouraged a deep interaction with someone from a different sphere/discipline.”

Click on the titles below to read the piece and the writers’ biogs.

The 2016 WriteScience Finalists are :

Alison Carr, Newcastle, writer, collaborating with Live Theatre’s Fun Palace, Newcastle

Morgan Anne Feeney, Norwich, microbiologist, collaborating with Norwich Millennium Library Fun Palace

co-writers Lynsey May, Edinburgh and Mandy Price, Tooting, London – writer Lynsey collaborating with Fun Palace in the Mall in Leith, Edinburgh on Saturday 1st and physicist Mandy collaborating with Brockwell Lido Fun Palace in South London on Sunday 2nd October

Lynsey’s blog here has the thinking behind the story she wrote with Mandy

Bob Newport, Canterbury, retired Professor of Physics, collaborating with Murston Heart Fun Palace, Swale, Kent on Saturday 1st October

June Palmer, Staffordshire, writer, collaborating with Ceramic City Stories Fun Palace, Stoke at the Wedgewood Institute Burslem on Sunday 2nd October, 12pm

Kate Webster, Edmonton, London, writer, collaborating with Drawn Together Fun Palace, Greenwich, London and ArtsDepot Fun Palace, Finchley, London