Writing and storytelling for social change.
Wind&Bones is a social enterprise dedicated to exploring the many ways in which writing can lead to positive social change. Run by writers Dr Hannah Stevens & Dr Will Buckingham. Based in Dundee, Scotland, we work across the globe.
We work with organisations and individuals to explore the transformative power of writing and storytelling.
Who we are
We are Dr Hannah Stevens and Dr Will Buckingham.
Hannah has a PhD in creative writing. She is an internationally published writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She has over a decade of experience working with community groups and grassroots charities, and has worked on projects for organisations including the BBC and Greenpeace.
Hannah’s most recent book is In their Absence (Roman Books 2021), a collection of short stories about missing people, and those they leave behind. In their Absence was based on Hannah’s PhD research. The stories testify to the complexity and diversity of the reasons that lead to people going missing.
Will has a PhD in philosophy. He is the author of 13 books with publishers including Granta, Hachette and Knopf. His most recent book is Hello, Stranger: Stories of Connection in a Divided World (Granta 2021/2), which was a BBC Radio4 Book of the Week. Will has been involved in writing projects for a wide range of organisations including the NHS and the BBC, and was formerly Associate Professor in Writing & Creativity at De Montfort University.
What we offer
We work with organisations and individuals.
For organisations
We run projects exploring how writing and storytelling can deepen communication, build community and bring about positive social change. Our project partners have included Greenpeace, British Embassy Sofia, Unboxed UK, the Goethe Institut, Mote Oo Education (Myanmar), GIY Ireland Ltd, the Premise Insitute — and many more.
For individuals
We work with individuals to mentor them through their own writing projects. Are you a short story writer, struggling with a first collection? Are you an academic trying to make the difficult leap from academic to trade writing? Or are you wrestling a novel into shape? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” we can help you!
You can find out more on our mentoring site.
About our name
We take our name from the Medieval Chinese writer, Liu Xie, and his book The Heart of Literature, the Carving of Dragons.
So cultivate the strength of the wind, and make the bone robust.
Liu Xie || The Heart of Literature, the Carving of Dragons (5th - 6th Century)
Liu argues that good writing needs a balance of wind (feng 風) — vitality, life and spiritedness — and bone (gu 骨) — organisation and structure. We see this balancing of wind and bones as good advice not just for writing, but for bringing about social change, and for life in general.
