Launch of the Neil Gunn Writing Competition
Highland school children and adults from across the Highlands and beyond are being asked to get creative and put pen to paper for the launch of the 11th Neil Gunn Writing Competition.
This writing competition, organised by the Neil Gunn Trust and The Highland Council, with sponsorship support from HI-Arts, was launched in 1988 to encourage creative writing. Held every two years, it is the only writing competition in Scotland for all age groups which is promoted by a local authority and is now one of the most prestigious events in the Scottish literary scene.
The 2009 competition attracted more than 200 entries from around the world and one of the major prizewinners, Israeli writer Daniela Norris will launch the competition at the conclusion of a special Neil Gunn Trust and Highland Council event held this evening (Tuesday 1 June) in the One Touch Theatre, Eden Court.
Encouraged by her success in the Neil Gunn Writing Competition, Daniela and her Palestinian friend, Shireen Anabtawi, compiled a book Crossing Qalandiya – Exchanges across the Israeli-Palestinian Divide, published in May 2010. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event. The event, chaired by Richard Holloway, writer, broadcaster and Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, will feature a discussion of their two very different cultures and how they came to appreciate each other’s point of view.
The theme for the 2010/11 Neil Gunn Writing Competition is ‘A Wrong Turning’. This was inspired by the following quotation from Highland River by Neil M Gunn:
“Our river took a wrong turning somewhere! But we haven’t forgotten the source.”
Writers are invited to interpret this theme in any way they wish. The piece of writing does not have to be set in Scotland; any international setting is welcome. The adult prose should be in narrative form.
It is judged in four separate sections:
• adult prose;
• adult poetry;
• secondary school (S3-6) poetry or prose;
• primary school (P5-7) poetry or prose.
The adult sections are open to all writers worldwide. The school competition is limited to Highland Council schools or schools abroad with direct links to Highland schools. School entrants must be in the named year groups at the closing date.
Each writer may submit only one entry per section. Entry fee for adults is £5 per entry; entry is free for school students.
The judging panel, appointed by The Highland Council and the Neil Gunn Trust, will be led by the prominent Scottish author, Andrew Greig.
The competition, first launched in 1988 to celebrate the important contribution of Neil Gunn to Highland and Scottish literature, has attracted large numbers of high-quality entrants in previous years. Several previous prize winners, notably Michel Faber, Bess Ross and Angus Dunn, have gone on to become successful published authors.
Entries for all sections can be submitted at any time up to Friday 11 March 2011. The writing must be previously unpublished, and can be prose or poetry in any variety of English or Scots or a combination of both. Copyright will remain with the author but the organisers reserve the right to publish a collection of winning and commended entries; further sponsorship is currently being sought to make this possible.
Prizes will be presented at a special event in Inverness Town House on Tuesday 14 June 2011.
From 2 June 2010, further details, entry forms and full rules of entry will be available on the Highland Council website (http://www.highland.gov.uk/neilgunn.htm). Entry forms will also be available at Highland Council libraries and schools and at venues throughout Scotland.
Winning entries from the 2008/9 competition can be found on the Am Baile website (http://www.ambaile.org.uk/).
Other sites to visit: http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/ http://www.neilgunn.org.uk/