The Isle of Man Literary Society met on Wednesday 7 January 2015 to announce the winners of the 2014 Olive Lamming Creative Writing Competition.
The Competition is administered by the Isle of Man Literary Society and supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council. With the 2013 competition having such a poor response, there were concerns about the 2014. This proved unfounded with over 50 entries evenly spread across the three categories of poetry, short story and non-fiction prose.
It was noted that the judges found it hard to choose the winners as the standard of writing was so high. The prizes were handed out by Joanna Crookall, who introduced herself as Olive Lamming’s great great niece.
The Poetry prizes went to Hazel Teare for ‘The Spectre at the Feast’ (first prize), Janet Lees for ‘Revenant’ (second prize) and the runner up was John Canavan for ‘Only Girls’.
The Short Story prizes went to Jacqueline Morrey-Grace for The Millionaire’s Secret (first prize), Claire Cannell for The Love Song of J. Alfred Phynoderree (second prize) and the runner up was Fiona Cregeen for Someone Else’s Game.
The non-fiction prizes went to David Atcheson for Remembrance (first prize), David Carter for Cinema at the Centre of the Universe (second prize), and the runner up was Clive Sutton for The Lucky Generation.
There was then a brief interlude before the prize winners were asked if they would talk briefly about their work. David Atcheson said his non-fiction piece was his thoughts on Remembrance Day as being about universal grief and that things can change without forgetting the past. David Carter said his piece was his memories of living in the cinema in Douglas. Jacqueline Morrey-Grace said she started writing in February as a response to an illness that gave her time to write. Her short story looks at the power struggle between two characters and why they continue to be “friends”. To finish off, each of the poets talked about their poetry and then read their poem.
The Society was also pleased to launch a book of all the entries for the 2014 Competition. This is now available at Waterstones in Douglas at the price of ?9.50 (or $14.85) as a paperbound hardcopy with over 300 pages. There is also an ePub version available in Kindle format through amazon and a pdf ebook uploaded to www.sellfy.com available from www.dpdotcom/olivelamming.html. The ebook versions are priced at ?3.85 (or $5.99). All formats are featured on the dpdotcom website.
The Isle of Man Literary Society thank the Isle of Man Arts Councils for their support of the Olive Lamming Creative Writing Competition. They also thank Ramsey Crookall for their sponsorship in publishing the book of this year’s entries.
The Society is also asking all entrants to sign a copy of the book which is being kept by the till in the Coffee Shop at Waterstones and hope to set up a Facebook page in the very near future.
