I am pleased to welcome Shirley Waite as my guest on the blog today. I know Shirley from the
Swanwick Summer School, a lovely bubbly lady who (as you can see from her photo, left) is always smiling and a talented writer. Shirley joins us today to talk about her recent success in the Bridport Prize and hopefully share some of her secrets... Firstly, I wonder where she got that terrific hat ...
After a
working life as a secretary, receptionist, PA and complementary therapist among
other things, Shirley took early retirement and rented a flat in Scarborough
for a few weeks. Ten years later
she is still there. She started a
part time BA (Hons) in Creative Writing at the University of Hull Scarborough
Campus and is now in her final year working hard on her last assignment. She
has been a runner up in several writing competitions but considers the Bridport
her biggest achievement to date.
Since discovering the wonderful writing week known as Swanwick, she has been
every August to meet up with some lovely writers (including The Literary Pig). Thanks to encouragement from Swanwick,
she has self-published a Kindle book about setting up a cafe church (‘A Menu
for Cafe Church’ on Amazon).
Shirley, please tell us all about your
success in the Bridport Prize this year.
Since hearing about the Bridport in my first year of a
creative writing course, I have entered Flash Fiction three times with no
success. This year I entered two
poems simply because the poetry judge was Wendy Cope who, as far as I am
concerned, is our greatest living poet.
Just the thought of her scanning over my attempts was enough. When I received an e-mail from Frances
Everitt, Competition Administrator, telling me my poem had won a Highly
Commended prize I thought it was a joke – except nobody knew I had entered. They ask you not to publicise your win
until prize giving day, apart from friends and family, so I did ring a friend
straight away. I’m afraid I
babbled – possibly squealed a bit - and she hadn’t a clue what I was talking
about but congratulated me anyway.
I'm a bit jealous as I've been entering prose for years without success. How did you decide
which poem to enter and what is the story behind the poem?
I entered two poems.
The one I thought would appeal to Wendy Cope sank without trace. The other was written during a class at
university when we had to think of an object from our childhood and write about
it. I chose my mother’s pinking
shears (don’t ask!) which fascinated me because of the noise What started out as a
light-hearted poem changed when I added the ending as my mum now has
dementia. It was originally called
‘Memories’ which was the only criticism from my tutor when I handed it in as
part of a poetry assignment. It
took longer to think of a new title than write the whole poem but as Alison
Chisholm says in her excellent book ‘Crafting Poetry’ the title is a vital part
of the writing. I made a list of
possible titles and ‘Unravelling’ worked its way to the top.
they made when she
was cutting fabrics out and probably because I was banned from touching
them.
You kindly invited me
to join you for the prize giving ceremony and lunch in Bridport and I’m still
kicking myself for not joining you.
How did the day go? Did you
meet any famous writers and can you share any gossip?
Originally, I wasn’t going to go to the prize giving but a
writing friend said of course I must as I’d probably never get another
chance. When I saw your
tweet about Bridport I realised you had entered the competition and would
probably enjoy going to the ceremony just for the experience. For some reason I thought you lived in
the Dorset area. We got on so well
at Swanwick that it would have been
fun to get together again.
The day was brilliant.
In fact, the weekend was brilliant.
I was lucky enough to book into a B & B (No.27, Bridport)
where the owner, Juliet, was a member of The Arts Centre, theatre-goer and big
reader.
She got me a ticket for
the Friday evening when Wendy Cope was giving a poetry reading followed by a
book signing where I managed to have a quick chat with her (see photo left).
Do I really need to say that was the
best part of the weekend?
The ceremony itself was better than I expected. The prize winners, guests, judges, etc,
all mingle in the art gallery with a glass (or two) of bubbly, which gave us a
chance to chat. I met a
lovely author who writes as Rosanna Ley and lives in Bridport. (Took her book ‘Bay of Secrets’ on
holiday with me last month.) Also
reintroduced myself to Michรจle
Roberts, the short story judge, who I met a couple of years ago when I attended
her short course on writing stories in Beverley and also when she gave a talk
at Scarborough Literary Festival one year. The buffet lunch with wine was a credit to the Arts Centre,
followed by the prize giving and listening to the top three prize winners in
each category read out their winning stories/poems.
No gossip, I’m afraid, but if it is any help I sat on the
same table as two ‘readers’ who said that every single entry is read,
regardless of bad grammar, bad spelling, written in coloured chalk . . . They said it was very easy to sort the
good from the bad at the early stages but they were glad they didn’t have to
decide on the eventual winners as there were so many good entries. The judging is completely anonymous and
fair yet some people have won a prize several times throughout the years,
showing their consistent good writing.
In 2013 the total entries were: poems 7758, stories 5887 and flash 2720.
Other highlights of the weekend: a walk to West Bay where parts of Broadchurch were
filmed. No dead bodies on the
beach and no David Tennant but you can’t have everything. A preview showing of the film The
Selfish Giant and a poetry slam, both at Bridport Arts Centre, Chocolatiers Cafe, @Dorsetchocshop (I managed to squeeze
in several visits for coffee and a chocolate frog plus took a bag of truffles
home), meeting @RosannaLey who was so helpful with writing advice.
Ooh, I sort of know Rosanna Ley - she used to be a member of West Sussex Writers. What a small world! And the stats on number of entries puts your success into context, Shirley. Making the final Highly Commended list is a significant achievement.
Finally, any top tips for
succeeding in poetry competitions?
I wish I had.
I can only repeat what has been told to me:
Find out who the judge is and read their poetry to get a
feel of what they enjoy.
Read the judges’ reports from previous competitions on
the websites.
Read the winning poems in as many competitions as possible.
Stick to the rules.
Make your poem the one that sticks in the judge’s mind.
Keep trying.
Also I think your comments earlier on selecting a title are appropriate too. A memorable and distinctive title can only help.
It's been lovely to chat with you, Shirley. Now you can relax for Christmas. And here is Shirley's poem
Unravelling
The pinking shears lived
On their own special shelf in the cupboard;
Shiny black handles, rows of silver teeth,
Too heavy to lift.
My mother could –
She could do anything when I was young.
Nights, weekends, her second job, cash in hand –
Singer, material, blue tailor’s chalk,
Tissue paper patterns, hedgehog of pins.
Then the shears: high priestess makes the first cut,
Blades grinding, shark-like, slicing through fabric.
A pile of soft shapes falls like a jigsaw,
Stitched into wedding dress, blouse, winter coat.
They still sleep on a shelf in the cupboard
And she likes to stroke the worn enamel,
Though they are too heavy for her to lift
And she doesn’t know what to call them
Or what they do.
(Reproduced here with kind permission of Shirley Waite)
