Save As Poetry and Prose Competitions 2009

 

By Gary Studley

 

SaveAs Writers Group held the award night for their second annual Poetry and Prose Competitions  on Sunday 31st January 2010.

 

With its atmosphere of chatty, relaxed artiness, complete with musicians and a smattering of intensely focussed but equally entertained web-browsers, Coffee & Corks was the perfect venue for an evening of creative writing and readings, packed to the gills as it was with an audience of 52.

 

As a prominent local writers’ group, Save As has been  running very successfully for eight years now, and wishing to celebrate writing in the near locale and beyond, they opened this year’s competitions to the width of the web and in return received an incredibly high number of entries from far and wide, including writers from America, Australia and Europe.

 

Seeking high standards of critical judging and input from those respected in their field, Luigi enlisted the help of Patricia Debney, lecturer at UKC and Canterbury’s Poet Laureate for 2008, to judge the poems; and Sarah Jackson, lecturer at University of Sussex and writer, to judge the prose entries. In the belief of fairness, all entries were anonymous, assigned a number and judged in complete ignorance of whom their authors were. On the night therefore, the assembled audience were as excited by the not knowing as by the high calibre of pieces, and were not disappointed.

 

 

Maria McCarthy

First Prize for

Cold Salt Water

As well as very positive responses to heart felt readings of PatriciaDebney, the audience were treated to the short listed pieces by

 

Kyrill Potapov

Second prize for

Synaesthesia

those  concerned, before Patricia shared both her reasons forselecting each piece and the announcement of the Prose winners. 2In the SaveAs Prose Competition .009, Marilyn Donovan won 3rd Prize with The Russians are Coming; Kyrill Potapov’s Synaesthesia earned him a 2nd place; and 1st Prize went to Maria Mc Carthy’s Cold Salt Water. Their prizes and applause were gratefully and happily received.

 

 

Marilyn Donovan

Third Prize for

The Russians are coming
In the Save As Poetry Competition 2009, it was again a pleasure to see so many Kent writers being  

 

 

Jo Field

First Prize with Skin,

 Third Prize for

Towards The Sea-
mrepresented, with a good proportion of those shortlisted beingembers of Deal Writers or our very own, Save As. After thought provoking and spirited readings of their short listed poems by Marilyn Donovan, Nicky Gould, Alan Gleave and Vicky Wilson, Patricia Debney again read out her reasons for selecting the winning pieces as she 

 

 

Gary Studley.

Second prize for

Passing It Forward
presented the prizes to those concerned. As well as an Honourable Mention being given to Girl by Nicky Gould, asurprised and delighted Gary Studley received 2nd Prize for his poem, Passing it Forward, sandwiched as he was by the 3rd placed poem, Towards the Sea and the 1st place poem, Skin - both penned by a shocked but ecstatic Jo Field.

 

 

 

Nicky Gould

Honourable Mention for

Girl

Patricia Debney praised the organisation of the competition and the amount of submissions in poetry and prose, and went on to emphasise how many of the poems she judged were of a high calibre; contained surprises and scale; and displayed evident technique and structure. Patricia added that the shortlisted poems took risks and went beyond the safety of the known, as well as having a confidence of voice that was very pleasing. Her choices and opinions won warm applause.

 

Save As have again played a very positive part in the local writing community, providing both the opportunity for writers to pit their wits and skills against their peers near and far, as well as show-casing another entertaining evening of creativity in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Our thanks go to Luigi Marchini once more for his enthusiasm, and our appreciation goes to all the writers involved in the competitions. Many congratulations to the shortlisted writers and the prize winners one and all. 

 

© Gary Studley

 

 

Patricia Debney

Reading at

coffee and Corks