Citadel Love Stories - An Intergenerational Creative Storytelling Project

Dear Reader,

This little zine contains the stories participants wrote in the summer of 2021 during three creative-writing online workshops co-organised by the Citadel Youth Centre in Edinburgh and researchers from the University of Dundee.

It all began with storytelling between people of different ages but with an inclusive attitude towards love and relationships. The youngest storytellers were in their mid-teens and the oldest in their early sixties. Many identified as belonging on the LGBT2QI+ rainbow. Some single, some in a relationship and other in polyamorous romantic relationships.

The online format was an excellent way to bring people together across both remote and rural parts of Scotland. We shared our story ideas together and gave each other feedback until by the final workshop we had produced our own finished versions. Some wrote their stories down, others told them verbally. The latter we transcribed in full. This zine contains many of those stories which we hope you will enjoy!

The full-page illustrations (and snippets of them throughout) were made by the visual facilitator Clare Mills of ‘Listen Think Draw’ who took part in the workshops. The front and back cover illustrations were commissioned later – created by Ashling Larkin.

Co-Editors of the little zine are Dr Mei Lan Fang and Prof Judith Sixsmith, School of Health Sciences; and Prof Michael Gratzke, School of Humanities – all from the vibrant Dundee City Campus of the University of Dundee.