'Rather like a fast-track MA in Creative Writing only better'

'If you are serious about writing and about becoming 'a writer', you owe it to yourself to sign up.'

Comments from those who have been mentored by Gold Dust. Read more here.

Gold Dust is a mentoring scheme for fiction writers, founded by novelist Jill Dawson in response to frequent requests from writing students for more individual support. The scheme operates from London, Cambridgeshire, Manchester and Oxford.

In 2001 Jill Dawson was commissioned by the Royal Literary Fund to research the needs of writers working on a first novel or collection of stories. She found that what emerging writers want most is detailed critical attention from a writer they respect, or perhaps simply the opportunity to talk to an experienced, published writer about their work.  

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Latest News
Gold Dust author lands publishing deal

Founded in July 2007 and hence less than two years old, small but perfectly formed, Gold Dust can already report a publishing success.  Writer Jane Rusbridge is to publish her  first novel, following her experience of Gold Dust mentoring by Kathryn Heyman.

Jane Rusbridge's novel The Devil's Music will be published in July by Bloomsbury.  Fans of Sadie Jones will delight in Jane's haunting and lyrical debut about love, betrayal and family secrets.  In the acknowledgments Jane thanks her Gold Dust mentor novelist Kathryn Heyman 'who, with her gift for language and trademark energy and humour, has been such an inspirational mentor and friend.'

Jane applied for a Gold Dust award after meeting Jill Dawson who was the tutor on Jane's Arvon course.

Jane's work had already come to Jill's attention when she judged a Mslexia competition and chose Jane as the winner, so the judges (who included Jill and Kathryn Heyman) had no hesitation in offering Jane a place on the Gold Dust scheme, which was at that time only a few months old.

Here is Jane's response to the mentoring, written a few months before her publishing deal:
 
I found this mentorship invaluable. When I first met Kathryn last May, I had been working on my novel on and off for three years, struggling to make the transition from short stories. I was wallowing around in almost 70,000 words which were not really going anywhere and I’d given myself one last year to sink or swim. Kathryn and I made a plan, set deadlines to keep up the impetus and – with wonderful brio and humour – she encouraged me to be brave, to put aside sentence by sentence fiddling until I had tackled the larger structure of my novel. The focus on plot and structure was just what I needed and, with her consistent support and guidance over the months, I grew confident enough to cut away great chunks and rearrange others, and to keep pushing on. Kathryn is a stimulating and inspirational teacher. At each stage, with clear thinking, infectious energy and enthusiasm, she provided detailed verbal and written constructive criticism, mixed with praise, and she was particularly skilful at prompting me to ask myself questions, about each character and their role in the narrative, about tension and the ordering of scenes. It was exactly what I needed. Kathryn’s guidance helped me to ‘discover’ what my novel was actually about. Well within my target20year, the novel was out there in the real world, with an agent. 

Gold Dust wishes Jane all the best with her novel.

Click here to order Jane's book from Amazon