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Hello from Autumn Voices

It’s almost Christmas!

We’ve had thundersnow and freezing temperatures, the lockdown rules have changed AGAIN (and again…and again), there’s a vaccine (woohoo!), and the Winter Solstice is almost upon us. That means two things: daylight hours will gradually start getting longer in a mere twelve days’ time, and it’s almost 2021. Can you believe that? What a year 2020 has been. However, unlike organisations who will give you a roundup of the year nobody wants to remember, we have only lovely, healthy and happy things for you in this bumper Christmas stocking of a newsletter.

Get yourself a gingerbread latte and a mince pie, and settle in…
 
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Guest Blog 🍂
We’re now in our third month of regular guest blogging on the Autumn Voices website, and we’re delighted to have Angelena Boden writing for us this month. Angelena has contributed writing for us before, and this time she’s blogging on the themes of self-publishing, marketing and promoting a book, and also being an older writer. You can find her blog here. Angelena’s last blog will take the form of a video where she answers questions on these themes, so if there’s anything you’d like to ask her please email them in to admin@autumnvoices.co.uk and we’ll send them on to her.
 
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Poetry Competition 🍁
You’ll know all about our October poetry competition by now from previous newsletters, but we’re thrilled to now bring you official news about the winners. The standard of entry was very high, and our judge Finola Scott was impressed with the language, imagery and craftsmanship of the poems. In the end, she chose ‘vivid’ and ‘provocative’ entries by Mary Jackson and Robert Duncan as her two Highly Commended poems – both of whom won a copy of the Autumn Voices book. The Runner-up, winning £50, was Ann Craig, with her ‘delightfully disturbing’ poem ‘Witches Goodbye’. The overall winner, winning £100, was Ingrid Murray, with her ‘marvellous, multi-layered’ poem ‘Digitalis Purpurea’. Each of the four winners’ poems are on the website, along with a video recording of the poet reading their winning entries aloud. They’re an absolute treat, and we hope you head on over and check them all out.

We’ll be running a short story competition closer to Spring, so look out for news of that next year.
 
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Autumn Voices Book Christmas Promotion 🍂
You’ll also know all about our wonderful Autumn Voices book from previous newsletters. We’re currently running a Christmas promotion online where it’s available at the special discounted price of £10 plus postage and packaging. As always, all proceeds go to Age Scotland and we’d love to send them some money this Christmas, plus we’re incredibly biased and think it would make a fantastic Christmas present! Please take advantage of this offer before December 21st and spread the word around to anyone you know who might be interested in buying it for themselves or as a gift.
 
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Donations 🍁
We now have a DONATE button on the website.
Like many third sector organisations, our future funding is uncertain, and we need to take steps to try and raise money to support the work we do. We are not yet a formally recognised charity or social enterprise, but we are working towards that and we currently receive some National Lottery Awards For All funding which is due to run out in June. We use that to pay two part-time team members to support the two volunteer–founders to run Autumn Voices. This includes developing and maintaining our website and its content, running our social media accounts and other marketing activities to build our audience and membership, and offering annual creative writing competitions.

As we explore future funding options, a donation would help to support our ongoing work and develop new activities to benefit and connect our community. We sincerely appreciate donations of any amount through a secure online payment and thank you if you decide to make a donation.
 
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Food Train Scotland 🍂
While we’re on a roll with donations and Christmas gifts, we’d like to give Food Train Scotland a mention. They’re an excellent – and now nationwide – charity who support older people living at home with shopping deliveries and other services that provide vital connections. They’re selling a wonderful set of Christmas cards to raise funds for their work and support their network of volunteers and we’d be thrilled if you took a look and considered a purchase to help them out.
 
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Some last stocking fillers… 🍁
Just a couple of things to pique your interest.

We’ve just discovered a broadcast series on BBC Radio 4 called Poems At Dusk. It’s hosted by a poet called Theresa Lola and she meets elderly poets whose work explores our complex relationship with old age and mortality. It originally aired on the 29th November, but is still available to listen to online until early January, so we recommend you give it a listen here.
It’s come to our attention that there is a very significant honorary Autumn Voices birthdays this month.

Edna O’Brien – prolific novelist, memoirist, poet and short story writer – turns 90 on December 15th. Edna is a recipient of the Irish PEN Award, the Irish Book Award and the European Prize for Literature, among other accolades, and talked to The Irish Times earlier this year about her desire to write one more book. Happy birthday Edna – we sincerely hope you do.
 
 
Thanks for joining us this month. Until next time, stay safe, stay well and stay in touch.

 

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