Freedom Papers: Commissioned Writing

In 2018, we invited 51 authors to contribute to The Freedom Papers - a series of essays exploring ideas about freedom. First published in a 160-page supplement to Gutter Magazine, which became the highest selling title across the Book Festival's bookshops in August 2018, the essays can be read below.

Visit guttermag.co.uk to purchase a copy of The Freedom Papers.

Supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund through Creative Scotland.

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The Ascent of Woman
The Ascent of Woman by Bruce Pascoe

You climb the mountain in silence. Each member of the group is introduced to the mountain with a single clap of the sticks. There is a lyrebird listening and he will repeat the number of those claps exactly…

A Minor Incident in Amsterdam
A Minor Incident in Amsterdam by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Sometime last year I was in Amsterdam for a couple of days. On the first evening, before I went back to my hotel, I wandered the streets for a while. It was about ten o’clock. I went into a pub…

Іосіф / Iosif
Іосіф / Iosif by Tania Skarynkina

There is no such thing as absolute freedom. The longer I look at God’s world, the more convinced I become of it. Even so, on occasion certain individuals are born who go on to do their utmost to make life better…

Educational Freedom
Educational Freedom by Brian Conaghan

Imagine an education system where students decide for themselves what they study, not in terms of subject matter, but content within that subject…

Freedom
Freedom by Vivian French

When I was little and complaining about the injustices of having to pick my clothes up off the floor and tidy my room, my grandfather would emerge from behind his newspaper and blink owlishly at me. ‘“Man”’ he would pronounce, ‘and that, Vivian…

The Sea Around Us
The Sea Around Us by Tania Kovats

Rachel Carson (b.1907-64) is one of the most significant voices to help us grasp the consequences of what we were doing to our planet. She communicated with a powerful intelligence and engaging poetry to tell the story of our seas…

Narrative Freedoms: Four Fragments
Narrative Freedoms: Four Fragments by Angela Woods

My grandmother sparkled with the stories of her past. Perfected through countless performances, her short narratives crystallised into precise recitals: words and cadences, flourishes and asides unchanged whatever the occasion and whoever the audience…

Cantona: A Love Story
Cantona: A Love Story by Inara Verzemnieks

He is a silent guest at our wedding, there for us as we say yes to each other in the wood-paneled, gilded-frame darkness of a strip-mall chapel…

Only the Freedom of Fiction is Certain
Only the Freedom of Fiction is Certain by Shahad Al Rawi

In the final scene of the movie Braveheart, William Wallace uses the last bit of his power while shouting the word: 'Freedom!'…

Freedom
Freedom by Ade Adepitan

What is freedom? This is the first time I’ve thought about the meaning of the word, maybe because I’ve never had to worry about being free. I grew up in Plaistow in East London. My family didn’t have much money but as long as I didn’t break any l…

Freedom of Movement and What It Means in Europe
Freedom of Movement and What It Means in Europe by Hsiao-Hung Pai

A few days after I arrived in Lampedusa, an Italian island nearer to Africa than to Europe, I met Jahid, Saeed and Asif, all under 18 years of age who came from a village in Bangladesh, who had been rescued from a sinking dinghy in the Mediterranean…

An Anti-Social Ride
An Anti-Social Ride by Lee Craigie

My life is not usual. By that I mean I don’t hold down a 9 to 5 job. I don’t have children. I don’t stay in the same place for long. I ride my bike…

Kidnapped Freedoms
Kidnapped Freedoms by Loujain Alhathloul

The journey started on 30 November 2014, stubbornly parked in front of the Saudi land borders for 26 hours, in an endeavour to transform the status of Saudi Arabia’s women by the act of driving…

Untitled
Untitled by Nicola Davies

You can find Freedom leading the rebellion, battering at the prison gates and shouting outside the palace window, calling dictators to account. But Freedom’s other work, her main occupation in fact, is much quieter…

Freedom... We do not know it unless we practice it
Freedom... We do not know it unless we practice it by Joud Al-Mabaydin

In the Qur’an, the Lord of the Worlds says: ‘We sent Our Messengers with clear evidence (to support their truthfulness), and sent with them the Book and the Balance so that people would maintain justice.’…

Freedom of Travel
Freedom of Travel by Gavin Francis

The rocks of Orkney witnessed our agreement to travel together, equal companions, bonded by free choice. We formed a plan, a path…

Freedom of Travel
Freedom of Travel by Esa Aldegheri

The rocks of Orkney witnessed our agreement to travel together, equal companions, bonded by free choice. We formed a plan, a path…

I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I Wanna Hold Your Hand by Cat Clarke

There are some things in life you take for granted. And by you, I mean me, so I might as well continue in that vein…

Libertad, palabra delgada, cáscara vacía / Freedom, fragile word, empty shell
Libertad, palabra delgada, cáscara vacía / Freedom, fragile word, empty shell by Juan Tomás Avila Laurel

Cuando todavía éramos ingenuos, y porque creíamos que el mundo era bueno y que había gente buena interesada en practicar el bien, la palabra libertad la asimilábamos a algo físico, real. / Back when we were still naïve, and because we thought the …

Johnny B. Crude
Johnny B. Crude by Olumide Popoola

There is freedom that emanates when you speak your name, when you use your voice. It reaches beyond the outcome. The act of enunciation is a conjuring, a testament, a moment that signifies your existence while generating a future…