Yes, I’ve enjoyed some success with Lancashire Authors this year. First my villanelle, Lancashire Cheese, was awarded the Pomfret Trophy. I’d entered two poems in this category and one in free verse for the Batty Trophy.
Lancashire Cheese came about through a fellow LAA member setting a challenge to write a villanelle with a happier subject than is usually the case. I find the villanelle a pleasant form to write in, with there being only two rhyming sounds to worry about. The tricky part is to then have it make grammatical sense.
I tend not to be an avid participant of writing competitions as I’m not really all that prolific but I enjoy supporting LAA, especially since the re-introduction of a dialect category, which can be both fun and challenging to write. When I find that I have a poem or some prose that I consider good enough to enter I tend to try to forget about it for a few weeks and then re-read and, if I still like it, edit it a little until it’s good to go.
Later in the year I was thrilled to have my photograph of the Singing Ringing Tree chosen for the cover of this year’s LAA anthology. The suggestion for the subject came from my son in law. My first visit to the site didn’t result in photos that I was happy with so I returned after two days when the sun was in more favourable position. Ideally I would have preferred to have included Pendle Hill in the frame but the day was too hazy. The winning shot was one of 34.
I also had the privilege to take part in one of the Telling Tales events that had been held at Chorley Theatre through the year, I’d heard about the events via LAA; it was the Halloween event and I read ‘A Boggart in Blackpool’, a dialect poem from my collection, The Dream and the Flowers.
I’m currently putting together a collection of poems with the intention of publication, and I will certainly be entering LAA competitions in 2025.
Find your copy of the collection here
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