The competition, held in honour of the late Twinks Perugini Kenyon, a much missed former member of RWG, was judged this year by her daughter, Anne Perugini Powell. Due to circumstances beyond her control, Anne was unable to attend the meeting but very kindly sent the results along by post.
In first place, was Kate Swann’s Growing Up, Learning Fast, a touching tale of childhood neglect. In second place came Final text message sent from a mobile phone washed up on the beach of Isola del Giglio by Phil Cook. (The rules of the competition allow for a long title to compensate for the strictly observed word count – precisely 50 – in the actual saga.) Phil’s entry used ‘text speak’, taught to him by young relatives, to great effect. Jan Maltby’s The White Bikini, a fine example of husbandly hypocrisy and wifely revenge, came third.
As Kate was not present this evening to receive the trophy, it will be presented to her in January.
Adjudicator Louise Cole, Editor at Firedance Books and Director of White Rose Media Ltd., gave us some very valuable insights into the skill of article writing, including crucial differences between objective reporting and opinion pieces. That done, she detailed the strong and weaker points of each entry before delivering her judgement.
In third place was Peter Hicks with his thought provoking piece on stress. Alma Williams came second with an unusual slant on the necessity of making a will; how to ensure the future of her grey African parrot. The winner of the Jack Moss trophy was Maggie Cobbett for her thoughts on boosting a writer’s income with the proceeds from ‘fillers’. Maggie wishes that she hadn’t blinked when the photograph was taken!
Our Hint of History competition was won this time round by Joe Peters, pictured above with adjudicator Ken Ridley. Joe wrote a very moving piece about refugees in Eastern Prussia and the lies they were told by Hitler.
A box of old slides and photographs from her childhood in Rhodesia were the inspiration for runner up Claire Cox.
Alma Williams took third place with an account of one of her female ancestors who followed the man she loved all the way from Seacroft to Siberia!
Nick David from York Writers kindly offered to judge our Short Story Competition.
The adjudication provided plenty of food for thought. Nick explained his criteria for choosing the winning stories and then commented in detail on each of the twelve. His constructive criticism and the individual written critiques received by each entrant were very much appreciated.
Nick presented the Members’ Trophy to Maggie Cobbett for A Deal’s a Deal. In second place was Cathy Grimmer’s Without a Trace and Ella Benigno came third with Wartime Memories.
Our adjudicator was Andy Humphrey of York Writers.
Andy began by explaining that, in adjudicating the poems, he was looking for three things:
1. Music – a well written poem is like a piece of music. It needs the right music for the mood and subject matter of the poem. This can be achieved by rhythm and the sounds of the words themselves – by alliteration, assonance etc.
2. Imagery – particularly an unexpected or surprising association
3. Rhyme that is well done. He said that for some reason, well-done rhyme seems to be achieved by children and young writers more easily than by older writers.
He then went through the poems one by one, giving a very full critique.
1st – Loading. The winner, who prefers to remain anonymous, was presented with the Susannah Carr trophy.
2nd – Eileen with Lacrimae Rerum
3rd – Daphne with Whispering Wind
After the reading of the winning poem, Andy took questions and read us some of his own – amazing – poetry which had us all spellbound.
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Our adjudicator this year was Rob Riley from the Boroughbridge Hightimers, who awarded first place to Lindsay’s The Biggest Bouquet
In second place was The Playthings And The Production of Cinderella by Jan and Eileen came third with Blackbird
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