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Summer's here and the time is right for... entering our Short Story Competition!

The good news is that we've extended the deadline for another two weeks to give more of you the chance to enter. We now have three top prizes on offer - £150 for the best story on each of our two themes "Give Back" and "Spring" - and now an extra £80 prize for the best entry from someone aged 80 or over. So if you haven't already entered, what are you waiting for? Stories can be any length up to 1500 words and you can interpret the themes in any way you like. All the entry details are available HERE and detailed rules are HERE.

While we're on the subject of giving back, a compilation of May's #CLANGERS entries on G for Give Back are HERE to read on our website. This month we've got tales of boat-racing and bird-feeding, a meditation on the Elgin Marbles and one on what it means to be a good grandparent.

We're also looking forward to reading your CLANGERS on June's theme of E for Eat Well. To give you some ideas, chef and cookery demonstrator Alasdair Wright has been blogging about the importance of eating well - even if it's only for one or two. Read his blog HERE and then log in to share some recipes and ideas of your own!

The Poetry Society's annual National Poetry Competition has just launched! This year's judges Fiona Benson, Rachel Long and David Constantine are - in their words - looking for poems that "tell the truth", "catch the heart" and "tilt the world", It's open worldwide until the end of October, and you can enter here.

Open Book organise and run weekly shared reading and creative writing sessions for a diverse range of community groups across Scotland. They're also hosting weekly virtual groups using Zoom, open to anyone and everyone! See the full list of groups and book your place here - there's even a group in Dumfries & Galloway specifically for writers aged 60+.

There's lot of great content on our website, like our recent Quick and Quirky Questions feature from author, poet and insomniac pianist Diana Hendry. But if it's the only place you visit, you're missing out! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for interactive snippets you won't find elsewhere. Join the social conversation!

"It's never too late to learn, from the young, the old, the living and the dead." - Jenni Calder

Did you know that all profits from the sale of the Autumn Voices book go to the charity Age Scotland? Edited by our founder Robin Lloyd-Jones, it's an absorbing anthology of interviews with writers over 70, from the celebrated to the more obscure. What makes them write? How does creativity in later life differ from what we make during that first flash of energy when we're young?

Copies can be purchased for £10 plus postage & packing HERE.

The Ullapool Book Festival is now well underway, running online events right through to 5th August. Don't forget our Short Story competition judge, Leela Soma will be in conversation with Chris Dolan on Wednesday 16th June. The event is being filmed in Glasgow and you can book tickets and find further information about the festival here.

And finally... the newest edition to our growing team is Orlando, the official Autumn Voices marmalade cat. As he tells us in his bio, he takes particular interest in our mewsletter, so even though he appears to be asleep we couldn't possibly sign off without mentioning him. He'll be making regular contributions to our content soon, but in the meantime you can read about his unique and indispensable skillset HERE.