Annual £1,500 Wigtown Poetry Prize Invites Entries from Around the World

Mar 2, 2020

Annual £1,500 Wigtown Poetry Prize Invites Entries from Around the World

The annual £1,500 international Wigtown Poetry Prize – which celebrates Scotland’s three indigenous languages – is now open for entries.

As Scotland’s international poetry prize it promotes and nurtures work in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic, attracting entries from as far afield as the USA, Canada, Australia, Ecuador and China.

Founded in 2005, Wigtown Poetry Prize is one of the UK’s best-established writing competitions and a launchpad for many writers’ careers.

The Wigtown Prize was originally for work in English but last year it was opened up to entries in all three languages and went to Mhairi Owens, from Fife, for her Scots poem Shiftin.

There are also dedicated categories, with top prizes of £500, for the best Scots and Scottish Gaelic poems. 

A 2020 launch event is due to be held at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh on 9 March, but entries are welcome from now until the closing date of 29 May.

Last year’s winners will be reading their poems during a Wigtown Poetry Prize Showcase at StAnza , Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, at St Andrews on 6 March at 1pm.

A StAnza event is also planned at the 2020 Wigtown Book Festival, which takes place in Scotland’s National Book Town from 25 September to 4 October.

Marjorie Lotfi Gill, who chairs the Wigtown Festival Company, said: “Wigtown Poetry Prize is going from strength to strength, attracting a high standard of entries, submitted by poets in every part of the world. 

“And this year we are lucky to have a superb group of judges including Roseanne Watt, Anna Frater and George T Watt to help select the winners.

“Last year’s decision to open up the Wigtown Prize to work in all three of Scotland’s indigenous languages was widely welcomed and we look forward to receiving entries for the 2020 award in Scots and Scottish Gaelic as well as English.

“We also have special categories that recognise collections of poetry and encourage emerging talent from Dumfries and Galloway.

“On top of all this we are working more closely than ever with partners across Scotland to support and promote a love of poetry.” 

Poetry prize categories include the Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize, which recognises a pamphlet of work rather than individual poems and the Dumfries and Galloway Fresh Voice Award, for poets living in, or from, the region who have never professionally published a full length collection.

The Wigtown Poetry Prize is organised by the Wigtown Festival Company, and the awards ceremony takes place as a part of Wigtown Book Festival. 

A series of partners are involved in the poetry prize including The Gaelic Books Council, Moniack Mhor, Saltire Society, Scottish Poetry Library and StAnza.

Sarah Mason, Director of the Saltire Society said: “Poetry and its language plays an important role in expressing and understanding life. The Saltire Society is pleased to be continuing our partnership with Wigtown Book Festival, encouraging and celebrating poetry in the Scots language. We look forward to seeing this year’s works.”

Alison Lang, Director of the Gaelic Books Council, said: “The Gaelic Books Council is proud to be supporting the Gaelic poetry competition again this year. It is encouraging to see how enthusiastically Gaelic writers, new and established, embrace the opportunity to become involved in this important competition, and it is always a pleasure to read the new poems that are written for the Wigtown competition. We hope to hear new voices again this year, in Gaelic and in Scotland’s other languages.”

The judges for 2020 will include:

  • Wigtown Prize and Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize – Roseanne Watt 
  • Wigtown Scots Prize – George T Watt 
  • Wigtown Scottish Gaelic Prize – Anna Frater 

Rules and entry details are available at www.wigtownpoetryprize.com

– ENDS –

Notes to editors

The Launch and the StAnza event

The 2020 Prizes:

  • Wigtown Prize: £1,500, runner-up £200
  • Wigtown Scots Prize: £500, runner-up £200 (supported by the Saltire Society)
  • Wigtown Scottish Gaelic Prize: £500, runner-up £200 (supported by The Gaelic Books Council)
  • Dumfries & Galloway Fresh Voice Award: A package of professional support including a retreat hosted by Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.
  • Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize, 30 copies of a pamphlet of your work set by Gerry Cambridge.

This year’s competition takes place in association with:

About The Gaelic Books Council

Comhairle nan Leabhraichean (The Gaelic Books Council) is the lead organisation with responsibility for supporting Scottish Gaelic authors and publishers, and for raising the profile and reach of Scottish Gaelic books in Scotland and internationally. Established in 1968, Comhairle nan Leabhraichean is a registered charity and receives support from Creative Scotland and from Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

About The Saltire Society

The Saltire Society seeks to encourage everything that might improve the quality of life in Scotland. It works to preserve all that is best in Scottish traditions and to encourage new developments which can strengthen and enrich the country’s cultural life. It acts as a catalyst, celebrant and commentator through an annual programme of awards, lectures, debates and projects. Founded in 1936 is a non-political independent charity with membership branches throughout Scotland.

Judges’ biographies

Anna C Frater was brought up in the village of Upper Bayble in the Isle of Lewis, in a home and a community where Gaelic was the main language. After gaining an M.A.(Celtic and French) and then a PhD from Glasgow University, she worked in various roles in the media before returning to Lewis in 1999 to teach on the Gaelic-medium degrees at Lews Castle College UHI. Anne’s poetry reflects on the Gaelic language and community, as well as politics and more personal experiences. Her work has been published in various anthologies, as well as her own collections, Fon t-Slige (1995) and Cridhe Creige (2017).

George T Watt tells us: Sittin in ma bedsit ae Saubath dey I liftit the weeken supplement o the paper an fit fell oot but a flee’er for the Open University. Ma een settled on it but ma heid wis birlin. Efter aa thay years, aa thay dairk malagruize years, naw surely it wis ower laet. I wis noo 53 year aul. Yet the thocht o it wuidnae gang awa. I duin ae course, Literature in English, an come awa wi ae BA 1st Class Honours. Haein a degree in English gaed me the confidence tae screive in Scots! I hae noo been published in Lallans, the magazine o the Scots Language Society, Gutter, New Writing Scotland an ae couple o anthologies. I hae twice been ae ‘Runner up’ in the McCash poesie compeitition an ane o ma poems wis selected as ane o the tap twinty wi the SPL in 2014. I hae also been featured on BBC Radio Ulster’s, ‘A kist o Wurds’. In thay turbulent times I cannae see hoo onywan can screive an nae be political! Poesie anent dugs an jougs an bonnie flooers is fine, but fit div ye really think on? Masel? Weel, whiles ye cuid argie I’m nae awfy subtle. I’m fur Independence, I’m fur Europe, I’m fur ae carin, sharin society, I dinnae fit in awfy weel wi Brexit Britain. I’ll awa fur ae walk up the hills. Frae the tap o ane o Scotland’s heich bens, ye can see furth frae the darg.

Roseanne Watt is a poet, filmmaker and musician from Shetland, now living in Edinburgh. In 2018, her debut collection Moder Dy won the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award; Moder Dy was also nominated for the 2018 Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year Award and the 2019 Highland Book Prize. She is currently poetry editor for The Island Review and was the winner of the 2015 Outspoken Poetry Prize (Poetry in Film) and runner-up in the 2018 Aesthetica Creative Writing Award.  Last year, Roseanne graduated with a PhD in creative writing and filmmaking from the University of Stirling.  

For media information and interview requests contact Matthew Shelley on 07786 704299 or [email protected]