“This is a great competition for Anstruther and a real boost for local writers of all ages.” 2019 Awards entrant
The Anstruther Writing Awards is a creative competition organised each year by the AIA.
In years gone by an ‘Anster Fair’ was held in the town to celebrate the poem of the same name written by William Tennant (1784-1848). The poem features the characters of Maggie Lauder and Rob the Ranter and has a sub plot of witches, wizards and fairies. Numerous events used to be held in Anstruther during the ‘Anster Fair’ and one of them was a writing competition. So in 2013 the AIA decided to revive the competition to build on our community’s great tradition of creative writing and to celebrate talent of all ages.
We are delighted to announce that in 2019 the Anstruther Writing Awards is running in partnership with the Scottish Fisheries Museum. The Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and as well as our usual category Awards, a number of entries will be selected for inclusion in an anniversary publication that will appear in 2020.
Theme
To celebrate the Scottish Fisheries Museum’s 50th anniversary entries to the Anstruther Writing Awards were invited on the theme of ‘Boats, fish and folk’.
Categories
Primary Pupils
Creative Writing first place: Reuben Scott
Creative Writing second place: Amelia Fyall
Secondary Pupils
Poetry winner: Ben Michie
Poetry highly commended: Orla Campbell, Lewis Stevenson, Flynn Stevenson
Short Story winner: Mathilda Orr
Short Story highly commended: Finlay Miles, Rahima Nazir, Jodie Dougall
Adults
Short Story joint winners:
Carol Hendry, The Beachcomber, and Elaine Webster, Drift
Short story highly commended: Norman Coburn, Lost in Silver, Dereck Thomson, The House of the Seven Dead Men, Gavin Baird, An Old Man and The Sea
Short story commended: David McVey, British Ocean Radio, Loretta Mulholland, The Pact
Poetry winner: Wullie Purcell, Davy
Poetry highly commended: Edith Harper, Awa Tae the Fishin , Wendy Orr, Shoring
Our sincere thanks to our judges: Christina Banach, Matt Barnard, Jennie Erdal and Chae Strathie