Happy Birthday, 2022 ... and whatever it brings, we hope it's better than the last couple of years have been! January's always a bit of a lean month, but here are a few snippets to keep you going as we all gear up towards Spring.
Exciting news... our forthcoming Crowdfunder is nearly ready to launch! As we explained last time, the donations we raise by this method will attract match funding from the National Emergencies Trust Local Action Fund and will help us continue to provide all our services and activities as we work towards becoming a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation). Any donations between £20 and up to £250 will be match funded, assuming we secure 25 pledges!
Of course, any donations would be more than welcome - but there's more than one way you can help! As a member, you can help our Crowdfunder be successful by spreading the word far and wide - to your friends and families, to work colleagues, to those you are in contact with online. You can use email, social media, or good old-fashioned word of mouth. We launch on 24 January, when the crowdfunding platform goes live,so put the date in your diaries. Watch our website for all the details and links!
Following hard on the heels of our Autumn Poetry Competition, our special all-ages COP26-themed environmental competition 'When I Am 100' which closed on 31 December produced work of excellent quality, whether poetry, fiction or CNF (creative non-fiction). Judging blind, our panel of judges were fascinated to see that they'd chosen work from such a diverse range of voices from different backgrounds, locations and age groups. Read about our winners below - and you'll be able to listen to them reading their work on our website very soon!
Our overall winner was Canadian writer Dean Gessie (61), with his outstanding list poem Foregone Conclusions which impressed every one of our panel of judges with its sheer power and technique. Dean recently won the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for Poetry in England, the Creators of Justice Literary Award sponsored by the Human Rights Art Festival in New York, and the UN-aligned Poetry Contest in Helsinki, Finland.
Our runner-up was Katie Lockwood, a 22 year old Teaching Assistant from Hertford, England, with her poem The Sea-Level Uprising. This was the first time we've opened an Autumn Voices competition to entrants of all ages, and Katie's poem was a profound and passionate warning against environmental disaster from someone whose 100th birthday is a long, long way away! She graduated from UEA with a degree in International Relations in 2020 and hopes one day to become a published writer.
Highly Commended in the poetry section was Centenarian by A .C. Clarke, aged 79. A published poet, her latest collection Wedding Grief - about the marriage of Paul Éluard and Salvador Dali's muse, Gala - was published by Tapsalteerie in 2021. Although her winning poem was deeply pessimistic, its ruthlessly imagined future, spiced with jet-black humour, impressed our judges.
Actor and writer Ann Craig (70), a former Autumn Voices poetry competition winner, was Highly Commended in the fiction section for her vivid dystopian monologue, It Is How It Is, which we could imagine being performed to great effect in front of a live audience. Ann trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and now lives in Angus on the north east coast of Scotland.
Finally, Ann Seed (68), who won our Short Story Competition last Spring, was Highly Commended this time round in the creative non-fiction section for her thoughtful and unflinching glimpse into a possible future, entitled 2053. Ann lives in Edinburgh and has enjoyed writing as a hobby since she was a teenager.
This month, we're all about photography as a hobby, and how it can have a positive impact on our mental health. Photographer Tom Langlands has already published the first in a series of blogs with plenty of useful advice! Alongside Polish-Canadian photographer Marianna Armata he's produced a book dealing with mental health in lockdown, entitled Poetry Of Entanglement - together with an accompanying calendar. To enter, just send us a recent photograph you’ve taken, or just tell us about your new hobby or interest in 350 words or less - with an accompanying photo! Details of how to enter at the bottom of Tom's latest blog!
As always, you'll have seen a lot of new content appearing on the site in the run-up to Christmas and New Year. Our December blog series Coorie & Hygge featured yummy recipes, a piece on knitting, one from a Wisconsin wood carver, and a prizewinning flash on walking the dog! We had varied responses to our Quick And Quirky Questions from all kinds of people from our Autumn Voices community - read them here,and don't forget that you can write one yourself if you'd like to share your own thoughts with the community. Just contact us by clicking here.
AND FINALLY.... our friends at The Bakehouse in Gatehouse of Fleet are holding a Burns Night Extravaganza! If you're in the area, you can join songwriter and author Alan McClure. Romp in the apolitical wonderland that is the Scots writing community and hear tales from the frontline of lockdown poetry workshops, widely ignored podcasts and pursuing a creative sabbatical in a time of no gigs. Tickets £10.00 including a hot toddy and haggis nibbles. To book ring 01557 814175 or email chrys@chryssalt.com
