Elgin Writers’ Group celebrates success at Scottish Association of Writers Annual Conference and Awards in Cumbernauld

A writing group scooped a number of awards - including two first prizes - at a national ceremony.

Elgin Writers’ Group had a number of reasons to celebrate at the Scottish Association of Writers Annual Conference and Awards held in Cumbernauld between March 21 and 23.

Former Milne’s High School pupil Margaret Woodward, a retired English teacher who writes as Meg Woodward, won the Silver Book Trophy for her review of a book of poetry, Objects for Private Devotion by Lydia Harris.

Her book, The Soldier’s Button, earned her second place in the novel for children aged 7-12, set during the 1650s around Brodie.

She was Highly Commended in the Crime Novel category with Rites of Spring, the third in a series of historical investigations set in the 1370s involving a Hanseatic merchant.

The first novel, set in Pluscarden, and the second in Danzig (now Gdansk) are both published.

She was also Highly Commended for a general novel pitch, Dark Dependency, a story of obsession and its counteractions.

Club Secretary, Dawn Tripp, from Lossiemouth, won the Largs Shield for her short sketch, Birthday Boy, about woman desperate to be invited to a birthday party after disgracefully stripping off in the restaurant the year before.

The play, essentially a monologue as the character leaves a voicenote, developed from a one paragraph dialogue writing exercise.

Club Treasurer, Lorna Fraser, from Aberlour, earned Second Place in the John Severn General Short Story category.

Her story, The Other Agnes, is a mysterious tale with a dark edge set in the Royal Court of medieval France.

Club member, Sue Fleming, from Burghead, got third place for her novel, the Dolls’ House, in the 7-12 age group.

Sue was inspired to write this by a school teacher who asked her to write something that would help children accept each other for who they are.

Separate to the club, UHI Scribblers member Findlay Hickey, a student on the University of the Highland and Island’s Creative Writing course, won first prize in the Alastair Walker ‘Oscar’ Trophy for General Article for his non-fiction article on Travelling With The Ghost of Woody.

The Scottish Association of Writers (SAW) was set up in 1969 and exists to champion, support and unite writers, authors and writing groups across Scotland. They do this through an annual conference and competitions. All members of affiliated writing groups, such as Elgin Writers automatically become SAW members.

Elgin Writers’ meets every two weeks, on Wednesday evenings, to provide a fun evening for anyone interested in writing, whether commercially, for just for fun.

The sessions are a mixture of speakers to learn more about the craft, manuscript nights where you can bring stories or poems you have been working on to get encouraging feedback on or just fun writing sessions with prompts to get you putting pen to paper.

Margaret Woodward, now a postal member after moving to Cockermouth five years ago, said: “The kindness, camaraderie and support of Elgin Writers over the years have played a huge part in my writing journey and in my life.

“The club has always been known as ‘friendly’, welcoming writers at all levels, and members past and present have been incredibly generous in their encouragement of those following in their footsteps.”

Lynne Russell, club president said: “Elgin Writers is one of the smallest Scottish writing clubs, which makes this success all the more remarkable.

“As President I feel incredibly proud of our talented writers who so deservedly won these Scottish Association of Writers’ accolades.

“The quality of the creative writing in our club is truly amazing and it is very exciting to witness the progression of such talent.

“As writers it is extremely important to build a community with other like-minded people and I am also proud to be connected with UHI Scribblers, which was started to support student writers, lecturers and alumni of UHI.

“The club has only this year become affiliated with SAW and I’d delighted to see Findlay Hickey win first place for his article at the conference.”

Findlay Hickey, from Strathpeffer, said: “I know there’s a bit of luck involved in catching a judge’s eye but I am chuffed.

“My entry was through our own UHI Scribblers. It’s great to have the encouragement and support of my peers at UHI, so it’s one for the team.”

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