Book Launch

Calder Wood Press launches Gerry Urwin’s chapbook

A Muse To Amuse

On 2 nd December 2009,
in the Buffet Room, Town House,
Haddington,
at 7:30pm
– with the support of East Lothian Libraries.

Readings from Gerry Urwin and Colin Will

Music by George Gillan and friends.

Refreshments

Free

All welcome

www.calderwoodpress.co.uk

RSVP by email: colin.will@zen.co.uk
or tel: 01368 864953

 

Inspired? Get writing!

National Galleries of Scotland & the English Speaking Union announce their
Creative Writing Competition 2009/10

Who is the competition for?

There are 5 categories:

• Under 12 years
• 12 - 15 years
• 16-18 years
• Unpublished adults
• Published adults

What do I have to do?

Write a short poem or piece of prose inspired by one of the works in the collections of the
National Galleries of Scotland. As a guide, pieces should not be more that about 1,000 words
in length. Images of many of the works can be accessed through the NGS website www.nationalgalleries.org
in the section ‘ONLINE COLLECTIONS’.

Where do I send my entries?

Entries should be typed, double spaced for prose and in a clear font. An entry form should be
completed, giving your name and the required details as the last page of the attachment,
and sent to inspired@esuscotland.org.uk. ONLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EMAIL, please post
your entry to Inspired? Get writing!, English-Speaking Union Scotland, 23 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8HQ.

Why should I enter?

• 10 awards will be made within each of the 5 categories, a winner, two runners up and seven highly commended.
• All entries receiving an award will be included in a public reading at Hawthornden Lecture Theatre at the National Gallery Complex.
• All runners up and outright winners will have free entry for two into all National Galleries of Scotland exhibitions for one year and receive two volumes of published work relating to art and poetry.
• Winners will have their entries published in the Scotsman newspaper .
• The class of the winning pupil in each school age category will be invited for a free tour and creative writing workshop at the National Galleries of Scotland.
• The winner of the unpublished adults writers category will be offered a free place on a prestigious creative writing course.

When do entries have to be submitted?

Entries should be submitted by Friday 22 nd January 2010. Results of the competition will be announced by Friday 9th April 2010.

For full details of competition guidelines and rules
please visitwww.nationalgalleries.org or www.esuscotland.org.uk or www.spl.org.uk

For any enquiries please telephone 0131 624 6534 or 0131 229 1528

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Writer of the Year Awards 2009

On Monday 19 October, more than eighty Tyne and Esk Writers and their friends,
enjoyed the latest exciting celebration of work in both Midlothian and East Lothian,
as awards were given to the eight runners-up and winners whose work had most caught
the imaginations of our judges.

This year’s competition had been open to anyone living or working in East Lothian or
Midlothian - writers don’t necessarily have to be members of Tyne & Esk - though
most of the entries were from the eight groups spread throughout the two counties.

With a first prize for prose and a first prize for poetry for entries in Midlothian and East
Lothian respectively, each of these four winners would receive a £25 book token and a certificate of merit.
Runners-up in each category would receive a £10 book token and a certificate.

The title Writer of the Year was to be chosen from one of these and awarded a beautiful
trophy, designed for the Writer of the Year by Alison Kinnaird, and a £100 encouragement cash prize.

Alan Gay, Convener of Tyne and Esk Writers, introduced the evening, telling us that upwards
of two hundred entries this year, split nearly equally between prose and poetry, had been
submitted - adding that it was perhaps fortuitous, this year, that we had two judges. Alan
reminded those not selected for an award this year that judging this kind of competition is
very difficult, with no set formula for success since so much depends on the interests and
the leanings of the judges and this can never be totally predictable.

Alan then introduced our Judges - Sam Kelly and Stuart Kelly, both of whom were more than
qualified to do the judging. Sam - who is well known at Edinburgh Napier University, as the
Leader of the new Creative Writing Masters Degree - judged the prose entries and her husband
Stuart - Literary Editor of Scotland on Sunday, the author of ‘The Book of Lost Books’ as well
as a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio Scotland’s The Book Café - judged the poetry entries.

Both judges, in their opening statements reiterated that their wish had been to see work of
boldness and imagination and that both would prefer to read an ambitious piece which
perhaps hadn’t succeeded completely on every level compared to one which, though
workmanlike and polished, might have relied more on a tried and tested formula. Sam
and Stuart expressed their delight at the quality and professionalism of both the prose
and the poetry they had read and so, even measured against such high expectations,
this year’s entries did not disappoint.

Midlothian Prizes

Runner-up in the award for Midlothian Poetry was Karen Robertson. Her poem, ‘Countdown to Creation’,
impressed with its arresting use of visual styles and her confidence in both modern and archaic language.

Winner of the Midlothian Poetry award, was Lesley Kelly, with ‘Rural Economics’. Both charming and
touching, in turn, Lesley’s poem reveals the stifling microcosm of small-town experience for an intelligent
girl, eager to escape to the world and its cities.


Runner-up in the award for Midlothian Prose had been Jean Durrand, with Escape to the Country,
her powerful study of three very different characters whose lives collide one afternoon at a solitary beauty spot.

Winner of the Midlothian Prose award, was Lesley Kelly for ‘Enumeration’, her delightfully measured and
thought-provoking account, in precisely defined voices, dealing with the cause of emancipation for
British women in both the present and the past.

East Lothian Prizes


Runner-up in the award for East Lothian Poetry was Judith Stewart, with ‘The Rantin’ Dog The Dadie O’t’.
Judith’s stark Edinburgh portrait of two of the amours of Scotland’s Bard, does not flinch in digging up
the ‘dirt’ teamed with poetic ‘deity’.


Winner of the East Lothian Poetry award, was Colin Will. In ‘A Short History of Xi’an’ we glimpse a
land made mysterious by distance and myth and gain insights into truth through the interplay
between changing cultures and complex viewpoints.


Runner-up in the award for East Lothian Prose was Kenneth Wilson, with ‘Tete de Veau Vinaigrette’.
Both moody and shocking, Kenneth’s story of a failed painter brilliantly evokes the sights and the
motley characters of a Parisian underworld.


Winner of the East Lothian Prose award, was Alan McKay. His beautifully crafted story, ‘Geckoes’,
unfolds mainly in the dialogue between a couple who no longer have much to say to each other,
yet still manages to tell us everything we need to know about their relationship.

Writer of the Year 2009


We are delighted to announce that the overall winner of Writer of the Year 2009 was
Alan McKay, for his story, ‘Geckoes’. Many congratulations to Alan and to all of the
winners and runners-up in this year’s competition.

L-R: Karen Robertson, Jean Durrand, Lesley Kelly, Judith Stewart, Kenneth Wilson, Colin Will
Absent on the night: Alan McKay

Thanks go to Alison Hunter, for East Lothian Libraries as well as to Alan Reid, for Midlothian
Libraries and to their staff for their valued help in making this year’s competition a great success.

Special thanks also go to our two judges, Sam and Stuart Kelly for their highly professional and
diligent work in judging the competition and for both informing and entertaining us so well
during the Writer of the Year award ceremony.

Sam Kelly, Stuart Kelly

We would also like to thank Simon Kesley, of Kesley’s Bookshop in Haddington, for his generous
donation of prizes as well as to Tyne and Esk Writers for donating the cash prize for the overall winner of Writer of the Year.

A sincere thank you goes to Alan Gay, for presenting the ceremony and for his ‘firm hand on the
tiller’ throughout all of our preparations for this prestigious competition.

Finally, may we thank all of the writers who were willing to be judged among their peers in this year’s
competition. With such an impressively high standard of entries, displaying both imagination and skill,
we know that we can to look forward to many exciting Writer of the Year competitions in the years to come.

Paul Duffney