News
Carols for Christmas Poetry Competition
3 categories – children up to the age of 16, unpublished and published poets.
The top three entrants in each category will be published, alongside 10 of the favourite readings from the past events, in a book to be sold on the evening and in the run up to Christmas.
In addition each of the three winners will receive a framed illustrated print of their poem – a second print will be auctioned at the Signet Library dinner to raise funds for the work of the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
Judges: Robert Alan Jamieson and Diana Hendry, along with Maureen Harrison of Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
Closing date: 16 October
For further information contact Sick Kids Friends Foundation on 0131 668 4949 or www.edinburghsickkids.org
Doors Open Day at Brownsbank
The farm labourer's cottage at Candy Mill, just four miles east of Biggar, was the home of the great European modernist poet and harbinger of the Scots Renaissance, Hugh MacDiarmid, from 1951 until his death 1978. Conserved by Biggar Museums Trust Brownsbank Committee, the cottage retains many of its original artefacts and memorabilia.
MacDiarmid himself once observed, “This place is a growing shrine to my vanity”. Much of its charm derives from Valda’s flair for collecting esoteric items at jumble sales, not to mention her carpentry skills. It is well worth a visit, just for a poke about.
The cottage will be open to visitors on both Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th, from midday until 5pm. Writers can bring some of their work for impromptu readings under the gean-tree throughout the afternoon.
For further information about MacDiarmid and Brownsbank Cottage, visit www.brownsbank.weebly.com
Writers Unblocked!
Writers’ Bloc – Edinburgh’s premier spoken-word performance group – makes a welcome return to Biggar, featuring published and prize-winning poets and novelists who present original material with attitude. Headed up by the inimitable Gavin Inglis (who will also be MC for the evening), performers will include Alan Campbell, Morag Edward, Andrew Ferguson, Jane McKie, Stefan Pearson and Andrew Wilson.
Other guests include Bridget Khursheed and Robert Leach from the Borders Writers, Stephanie Taylor from Tyne and Esk Writers and Anita John from Pentland Writers. Writer and theatre director and creator of The Lichfield Mysteries, one of the largest community arts festivals in Europe, Robert Leach has published two full collections of poetry and has a third on the way, while Stephanie’s first novel The Device, the Devil and Me is attracting rave reviews.
Anne Armstrong and Andrew McCallum will be the Biggar Writers behind the mic on the night. Both enjoyed Edinburgh Fringe debuts earlier this year, and Andrew also appeared with Bridget Khursheed at the annual Callander Poetry Weekend in September.
A busy programme, ranging from the sublime to dirty punk, this is a good time to get your spoken word fix. But be prepared to be surprised — if that makes sense.
Writers Unblocked! will be on at Biggar Corn Exchange on the 20th October from 7.30pm. Tickets available from the Little Festival box office and website.
Biggar Writers at the Fringe
Each has booked a slot at Underword's open mic evening, on Monday 17th August, in Fingers Piano Bar in Edinburgh's Frederick Street, and will be appearing alongside Mairi Sharratt and Richard Tyrone Jones.
The event is free and unticketed; so if you're in town and have an hour free at 7.50pm, go along and lend them your support.
Andrew will also be reading at the Scottish Poetry Library between 2 and 3pm on Monday 24th August.
Meet the Author at Atkinson Pryce
Inverness-born Shona MacLean, author of the historical novel The Redemption of Alexander Seaton and neice of the thriller writer Alistair MacLean, will be in town on Tuesday 16th. Children’s author, K.M. Grant, will be visiting Biggar Primary School on the 17th. And ex-cop and brilliant new crime writer from Glasgow, Karen Campbell, will be reading from her latest novel After the Fire on the 18th.
A Party for Kipper for the wee ones on the Friday afternoon and a chocolate-themed Girls’ Night In in the evening, rounds of a fantastic week at our favourite independent bookseller.
Contact Atkinson-Pryce 01899 221225 for tickets and details.
pass on a poem
Venue: Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, High Street, Biggar
Time: 20th February 2009 at 7.30pm
Tickets: £5 from Atkinson-Pryce
No previous experience of either poetry or reading it live is required!
Join Biggar Writers and guests for a live poetry event in the intimate, informal and relaxed setting of Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop. Come along and read your own or a favourite poem, or just sit back and soak up the Muse.
Special Guest - Jane McKie
Jane McKie, originally from Sussex, now lives in Scotland with her husband and two children. She has had poems published in Island Magazine, New Writing Scotland, The Red Wheelbarrow, Other Poetry and Pennine Platform, and her first collection, Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press), won the first book category of the Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book Awards 2008.
South Lanarkshire Writing Competition Results Announced
Biggar Writers Group have announced the winners of the writing competition which it organised in the autumn for writers living in South Lanarkshire.
Taking ‘Landscape’ as its theme, the competition drew entries from throughout the local authority area and provided the competition judge – outgoing Brownsbank Fellow, Tom Bryan – with a daunting task in selecting an eventual winner.
“I enjoyed reading the entries,” Tom said. “The standard was high and most of the pieces evoked a real sense of, and love for, the South Lanarkshire landscape.”
The winning entry was ‘Craignethan Duet’, by Chris Ross from Strathaven. “I liked the way this prose piece moved back and forth in time, evoking a real sense of place and history.”
Dee Yates from Crawfordjohn took the first runners-up prize with ‘A Wild and Lonely Place’, a near-perfect Shakespearian sonnet; while Keith Roberts from Drumclog was second runner-up with ‘Avondale from the Kitchen Window’, a prose piece combining history and lore which is almost poetic-like in its eye for detail.
Anne Armstrong from Kirkfieldbank, Muriel Burns from Lanark, and Mark Rice from Hamilton were also commended by Tom for the quality of their entries.
Andrew McCallum of Biggar Writers commented: “The sheer number and quality of the entries we received is an indication of just how popular creative writing is in South Lanarkshire. Across the county there are ten writers groups that I know of, and scores and scores of people working away on their own producing good work. It’s the most accessible artform there is, and its fantastic that over the past 15 years or so we’ve had people like Tom from the Brownsbank Fellowship supporting and nurturing it.”
Links to the winning and commended entries can be found in the Showcase section.
Biggar Writers' Christmas Extravaganza
It's become a bit of a tradition for Biggar Writers Group to hold a lavish literary entertainment in the run-up to Christmas.
Bring along a favourite piece of writing on a winter theme, something to nibble and a gift-wrapped secondhand book for Santa's sack, and we'll write the night away in our own inimitable style!
There will be a seasonal-themed writing exercise which will (hopefully) produce another of our collective poetic gems.
Biggar Municipal Hall
22nd December
7.30 - 9.30pm
Don't miss it!
2009 Wild Writing Competition
The John Muir Trust is now accepting entries for the 2009 Wild Writing Competition at the Fort William Mountain Festival. The competition, which is free and open to all, encourages both aspiring and professional writers to pen stories about Scotland’s landscapes and wild places.
“We are looking for inspiring short stories with the broad theme of' ‘experiences in wild places,'” commented competition organizer Alison Austin. “Your entry can be factual or fictional and could incorporate a journey, a place, an expedition, a mountain or river, a walk, climb, sail or kayak.” First Prize is a place on a Writing and Place course at Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s creative writing centre.
Now running in its third year, the competition attracted over 50 high quality entries in 2008. Previous judges have included well-known writers Cameron McNeish, Jim Perrin, Cynthia Rogerson and Kenny Taylor. This year’s judges are the writer and teacher in creative writing, former Brownsbank Fellow Linda Cracknell, and Hamish MacDonald, playwright, novelist and Director at Moniack Mhor.
It is hoped that the Gaelic, poetry and children categories will extend the reach of this year’s competition.
The closing date is the 26th of January 2009 for entries (not exceeding 1200 words) in English or Gaelic. Entries selected for final consideration will be exhibited at the 2009 Fort William Mountain Festival. The winning entry will be published in the John Muir Trust Journal.
To download an entry form and view further information go www.jmt.org or www.mountainfestival.co.uk
Twenty First Birthday Playwriting Competition
When their 21st Birthday celebrations are over this autumn, Rowan Tree Theatre Company hope that they will have some new plays to take them forward to the future. With the support of Scottish Borders Council and Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association, they are launching a South of Scotland playwriting contest with a prize money of £1500.
Entrants may be either new or established writers and must be based in the Scottish Borders or Dumfries and Galloway. The play should be for no more than 3 performers (who can be actors or musicians), and be of 45 min to 90 min duration.
Entries should be sent in by the 31st December 2008 and the winners will be announced on 28th February 2009. Entries should be sent to Helen Currie, Bowhill Theatre, Selkirk, TD7 5ET or to DGAA, Gracefield Arts Centre, 28 Edinburgh Rd, Dumfries, DG1 1JQ. Alternatively e-mail: hcurrie@buccleuch.com
For full details, visit: www.rowantreetheatrecompany.co.uk
Biggar Writers' Double
Biggar writer, Andrew McCallum, has for the second year running taken third place in the prestigious McCash Scots Poetry Prize with his darkly erotic poem ‘Canis Lupus’.
Announcing the Prize – presented jointly by The Herald and Glasgow University – Lesley Duncan said “As always, thanks to the Online Herald’s global readership, entries to the McCash competition came in not just from Scotland but from far-flung and unexpected places, including, China, Nigeria, and the Yukon.”
In a unique double for Biggar Writers, Anne Armstrong from Crossford was also short listed with her poem ‘O my love is like a poki chips’.
First place went to Rab Wilson of New Cumnock, for his poem ‘Lambs’ - an emotionally powerful meditation on that most disturbing of themes, the slaughter of the innocents. Composed a decade after the Dunblane massacre, it reflects both Rab’s response to the outrage and its disturbing echoes in rural life.
Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s national poet and the senior judge, said of both Andrew and Rab’s poems: “There’s a sense of a real event, a personal sense of the subject, but there’s also something eldritch, nightmarish. What would Burns have made of these poems?”
Second place went to Holly Morrison of New England with her ‘Screevins frae a Bothy in Maine’, which was commended by Professor Alan Riach for its “marvellous avalanche of Scots words”.
The judging panel also included Liz Lochhead, Glasgow’s poet laureate, and Nigel Leask, Professor of English Literature at Glasgow University.
An evening’s celebration of the prize-winners’ work will be held at Glasgow University’s Gilmorehill Theatre and Conference Centre later in the autumn.
Meanwhile, Andrew’s poem can be read at his website
Rab Wilson's winning poem can be read at Writer in the Storm blog.
Cèilidh at Brownsbank
The cèilidh is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems and ballads, are rehearsed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums are put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are related and discussed. Dancing is a rather dubious accretion, probably introduced – like kilts and tartanry – for the benefit of the 19th century tourist trade. Genuine cèilidhs are traditionally held in private houses in remote rural hinterlands and during busy festivals.
Join the Brownsbank Fellow, Tom Bryan, and Biggar Writers for an authentic cèilidh around the fire at Brownsbank Cottage. Bring your favourite tale to tell or poem to perform or song to sing, or just sit back and enjoy the craic in the cosy atmosphere of the traditional 19th century farm labourer’s cottage that was last home to the world-renowned poet Hugh MacDiarmid.
Monday 20th and Wednesday 22nd October
7.30pm till we all go home
£4.00 (£3.00 concessions)
It’s just a wee cottage, so numbers will be limited and booking is essential.
To reserve a ticket, contact:
01899 221743
or
brownsbank@googlemail.com
Doors Open Day at Brownsbank Cottage
Visit the last home of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid. The cottage will be open to the general public from 12-5pm on Sunday 14th September. Informal poetry readings will take place under the rowan tree throughout the afternoon from 2-4pm. Bring a picnic and enjoy the atmosphere and beautiful views. Some light refreshments will be provided.
Andy Forster Nominated for Forward Prize
Andy Forster, former member of Biggar Writers, Literature Development Officer for Dumfries & Galloway until this spring, and now working for the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere has been nominated for a prestigious prize following the publication of his first collection of poems. Andy's book Fear of Thunder has been shortlisted for a Forward Prize for the Best First Collection of poetry. It was published late last year by Flambard Press.
Andy now organises the Wordsworth Trust's programme of poetry readings that brings some of the best poets to Cumbria to read their work. He has also set up a poetry workshop and organises occasional outdoor poetry readings for visitors to Dove Cottage, including reading his own work. Michael McGregor, Director of the Trust said: "We are all delighted to see Andrew's talents as a poet recognised. The trust has a long tradition of encouraging an interest in poetry and nurturing new talents, and it is great to see that Andrew is achieving this level of recognition for his work."
Andy's poems have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies since 1993. He has also written essays and reviews of poetry and was awarded Scottish Arts Council writer's bursaries in 1998 and 2002. In 2001 he was Writer in Residence for North Lanarkshire council museum department, which lead to editing the anthology Imagining Industry. He is currently completing the MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Describing his work in Fear of Thunder, Andrew said: "The poems in the collection look at what makes us human: The father who can't escape a childhood fear; the airforce pilot who refuses to fly; Elizabeth Bishop taking stock in North Carolina. The wide range of characters speak to us of our common experience."
A Writing Competition for South Lanarkshire
A Writing Competition
for South Lanarkshire
organised by
Biggar Writers Group
open to anyone who lives or works in
South Lanarkshire
1st Prize £25
2 x Runners Up £10
Judge: Tom Bryan
Brownsbank Fellow
Closing Date: 31st October 2008
South Lanarkshire embraces a wide variety of landscapes, from the urban backdrops of East Kilbride, Rutherglen and Hamilton to the dramatic hills and valleys of the Southern Uplands and the well-watered gardens of the ClydeValley.
To pay homage to – or bemoan! – the part of the world in which we live and work, Biggar Writers are inviting original writing, in any genre, on the theme of ‘Landscape’. Poems should be no longer than 40 lines, prose pieces no longer than 2,500 words.
Since the competition is to be judged anonymously, the entries themselves should bear no identifying mark but should be accompanied by a separate sheet with the name of the piece and the writer’s contact details, together with the appropriate entry fee.
Entry Fee
£3.00 for single entry
+ £2 for each additional entry
Proceeds will contribute towards the costs of a reading event
for writers and friends to be held
early in 2009
Entries and enquiries to:
Biggar Writers Group
14, Boghall Park
Biggar
ML12 6EY
biggarwriters@googlemail.c om
Britain's Favourite Storyteller at the Little Festival
Biggar Little Festival organisers have staged something of a coup by bringing former Mid Road resident, Alexander McCall Smith, back to Biggar to appear in this year's Kulturfest. A fabulously prolific writer, McCall Smith will be appearing at the Corn Exchange on Thursday 23rd October to talk about his books and answer questions from the audience. Due to the limited capacity of the Corn Exchange theatre, the advice is to book early. Tickets will be available from Atkinson Pryce bookshop and from the Festival website
Biggar Writers Bloc
Biggar Writers are joining forces with Writers Bloc from Edinburgh to present an evening of readings in Biggar Corn Exchange from 8-10pm on Tuesday 27th May. The evening promises wit and irreverence with some serious stuff thrown into the mix as well. Join us if you can! £3.00 (£2.00 conc.) at the door.
Anne Armstrong, Margaret Dunlop, Fiona Gibson and Andrew McCallum will be the Biggar Writers appearing on the night.
A Yorkshire Lass
Group member Dee Yates' second novel, A Yorkshire Lass, has been published by Harlequin.
For Sarah-Louise, life in the big city of York is all she's ever wanted. Working as a maid, she is given education and respect. But when her employer decides to move away, he helps Sarah-Lou find a new position. As Sarah-Lou tries to find her way in life, she realises that the excitement of the big city may not be where her heart really lies.
An involving saga, Dee’s prose brings 1880s Yorkshire to vivid life.
Andrew Greig in Biggar
Poet, novelist and mountaineer Andrew Greig will be talking about his new novel Romanno Bridge in Biggar on Wednesday 9th April.
One of the finest writers in Scotland today, his first novel, Electric Brae: A Modern Romance (1992), was shortlisted for the McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. His next novel, The Return of John McNab (1996) was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association Award and is being filmed for the BBC. That Summer (2000), is set in June 1940 on the eve of the Battle of Britain. His fifth novel, In Another Light (2004), won the 2004 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.
The event will take place at the Elphinstone Hotel. Tickets are free and are available from Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop in the High Street.
Strawberry Yield
A poem by Biggar Writer, Sandy Laird, is to be included in this year's New Writing Scotland anthology.
New Writing Scotland is the principal forum for poetry and short fiction in Scotland today. Every year it publishes the very best from both emerging and established writers, and lists many of the leading literary lights of Scotland among its past (and present) contributors. Over the last twenty-five years New Writing Scotland has published early material by Iain Banks, Anne Donovan, Janice Galloway, A. L. Kennedy, James Meek, Ian Rankin, Suhayl Saadi and Irvine Welsh, along with a host of other talents.
Sandy's poem, 'Strawberry Yield', can be found in the Showcase section.
A Searching Glance
A Searching Glance, the long-awaited second collection from one of Scotland’s leading short story writers – the former Brownsbank Fellow, Linda Cracknell – will be published on 1st March.
The worlds inhabited by the characters in these stories are diverse: a hillwalker unknowingly watched over as he lies dying on a Highland hill; a Glasgow party-goer searching years later for a woman who may have mistaken him for a monster; a mysterious prize sought in the perpetual daylight of midsummer Orkney.
Linda’s stories are multi-layered and brooding with longing and loss, allowing the reader a ‘searching glance’ at their characters’ lives. With touches of the surreal and hard strokes of reality, these stories will linger in the mind.
A Searching Glance is published by Salt Publishing.
Posted 27/1/08
Mummy Said the F-Word
Fiona Gibson’s new novel, Mummy Said the F-Word, is published by Hodder on Feb 21. It’s the story of Cait, a mother of three, whose husband left her for the fluffy young thing who serviced his office water cooler. When Cait is offered the job of agony aunt on an impossibly smug parenting magazine, she thinks she’s the last person qualified to offer advice. Then the mysterious emails start coming, signed simply from ‘R’. Is he a stalker, a fan or the key to her happiness?
Posted 20/11/07
Poem of the Month
Andrew McCallum's poem, aonghas macneacail mows e's meadie, is to feature as 'Poem of the Month' on the Scottish Arts Council website. The poem was nominated by the staff at the Scottish Poetry Library and will appear in the Scots area for the month of December.
Posted 24/10/07
Fear of Thunder
Former Biggar Writer Andrew Forster’s first collection, published by Flambard Press, confronts wideranging themes with clarity and artistry. In Fear of Thunder the reader meets a diverse selection of characters and situations: the young girl in a cul-de-sac who dreams she is a horse; a father unable to shake a childhood fear; the air force pilot who refuses to fly. Yet whether Forster is conjuring up a horse-whisperer hounded for his gifts or thinking about the poet Elizabeth Bishop taking stock in Carolina, he is at all times asking us to consider our common experiences.
Flambard Press launches Andrew Forster's Fear of Thunder at the Scottish Poetry Library 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh on Wednesday 31st October at 7pm. Please book at reception@spl.org.uk or call 0131 557 2876
£5 (£3 concessions)
Posted 24/10/07
Biggar Writer Takes 3rd Place in McCash Scots Poetry Competition
Andrew McCallum's poem Ryan's Auld Man's Oot o Saughton... has taken third place in this year's prestigious James McCash Scots Poetry Competition, run jointly by The Herald and Glasgow University and judged by a panel headed by Edwin Morgan, Scotland's poet laureate.
The poem is based on snatches of various conversations Andrew overheard in an Edinburgh pub, concerning the release from Saughton prison of a local man, and the form of his poem reflects the manner in which the story came to him through these 'many voices'.
The winning poem, called My Land, by Ayrshire poet Sheila Templeton, who also won this year's Robert McLellan Poetry Award, offers a series of terse but immensely lyrical images of Scotland, while hinting too at darker aspects of the national character.
Second prize went to William Hershaw from Fife, for an atmospheric poem called The Swallow, which integrates traditional and contemporary Scots vocabulary to original effect.
Poetry aficionados are invited to an open celebratory evening for the McCash Competition. It will be held in the Scottish Literature Department of Glasgow University, 7 University Gardens, at 7pm on Thursday, November 1. All are welcome.
Posted 26/07/07
Markings invites unsolicited submissions of poetry and fiction
Markings – a bi-annual Arts Magazine - is now in its eleventh year, offering a synergy between the written word and performance.
Since its inception Markings has gone from strength to strength and is now one of Scotland’s most popular literary magazines. What started as a slim pamphlet with a paper cover is now a hardbound volume funded by The Scottish Arts Council and Dumfries and Galloway Council, running to around 150 pages. It contains poetry, contemporary art, short stories, criticism and reviews.
The current edition features Stewart Conn, Edinburgh’s first Poet Laureate, Diana Hendry a former Whitbread Prize Winner, A C Clarke, winner of the prestigious Petra Kenney Prize, Eeva Kilpi, one of Finland’s leading writers (translations by Scottish poet Donald Adamson) and Bernard Kops whose international reputation as poet and playwright needs no introduction. It also includes work from writers we believe you hear much more of in the future!
Markings invites unsolicited submissions of poetry, fiction, artwork and critcism. Submissions in any language are welcome providing they are accompanied by either an English or Scots translation. Markings is distributed widely across Scotland, into England and abroad. It has printed more than 20 poetry pamphlets and expansion into full-sized publications is currently under consideration.
Submissions and subscriptions to:
The Bakehouse, 44 High Street, Gatehouse of Fleet, DG7 2HP
Tel: 01557 814196 Mob: 07801801204
Email:johnhudson@markings.org.uk
Posted 17/7/07
Marching in Scotland, Dancing in New York
Local writer Margaret Dunlop, perhaps better known locally by her married name Margaret Wiener will have her first book, 'Marching in Scotland, Dancing in New York' published on 3 August. There will also be a launch of the book at Atkinson-Pryce bookshop in Biggar later that month (date not yet fixed). Margaret lives in Biggar and she has lived in South Lanarkshire for around 40 years. Some information about the book and Margaret herself can be found on www.margaretdunlop.com
Posted 18/6/07
Scottish poems for children win national award
The CLPE Poetry Award for 2007 was presented on Thursday to Julie Johnstone, editor of The Thing that Mattered Most: Scottish poems for children (Black and White Publishing/Scottish Poetry Library, 2006).
The Thing that Mattered Most - which includes poems by Anne Armstrong and Andrew McCallum, as well as the current and two former Brownsbank Fellows, Tom Bryan, Matthew Fitt and Gerry Cambridge - is the first Scottish collection to win the prize since the CLPE Poetry Award was established in 2003 to honour excellence in poetry written for children. Previous winners include such well-known names as Roger McGough, John Agard and Grace Nichols.
This year’s judges were poet and BBC radio presenter Ian McMillan and last year’s winner, anthologist Fiona Waters. Waters commented:
‘This is such an imaginative and exciting collection of new poems, and you don’t need to Parliamo Glesca to understand them either for while this is an intensely Scottish selection, and justly proud to be so, the poems reach out far beyond the borders of that nation. Full of the sights and smells of the countryside, the hustle and bustle of the city and the tumultuous tumble of thoughts in the reader’s mind, this is a unique and compelling selection.’
Beautifully designed and illustrated by Iain McIntosh (best known for the covers of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Lady Detective series), The Thing that Mattered Most includes poems in Scots, Gaelic and Shetlandic as well as English and features a preface by former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo.
Editor and award-winner Julie Johnstone, who is also the librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library, said:
‘From the start The Thing that Mattered Most has been about celebrating the rich variety of poets working in Scotland today. We hear a lot of gloomy news these days about poetry publishing – in particular about children’s poetry publishing. Scottish children had very little access to new poems by Scottish poets; this book is unique and fills a real gap. It was a joy to edit the collection and to play my part in bringing Scottish poets and children everywhere together in a fresh and exciting way.’
A copy of The Thing that Mattered Most was sent to every school in Scotland by Learning & Teaching Scotland, funded by the Scottish Executive, when it was published in August 2006.
The CLPE Award is administered by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education