Thanks to Nicholas Hallett chairman and Roger Bluff secretary of the Hatchery Writing Group, we have not only had a fantastic year of talks, prompts and sharing writing, but have taken part in a specially organised competition judged by New Writing South
As well as a bit of Christmas partying, winners and prizes for prose and poetry were given.
The theme of the competition was ‘A crack that lets in the light’. Rosemary Phillips with The Crack that Lets in the Light, Brian Cremer The Crack that Lets in the light, Claire Shelton‐Jones Henry’s Dream, a story from Roger Bluff all won prizes in the prose section.
Stories as diverse as one about dementia, another about being a prisoner of war, wove the theme of ‘Letting in the light’ into their stories easily and effortlessly.
Sarah and I were joint first prize winners in the poetry section, Shirley won a prize too, and others had special mentions!
Please note – Due some confusion as to the order of the winning entries both in poetry and prose. I checked with the Chairman that this information was correct prior to publishing this post.
Winning and losing didn’t really matter at the end of the day, because both New Writing South and the Hatchery appeared to have prizes galore in the shape of tokens and bottles of wine!
As many people as possible read out their entries. These included Claire Shelton‐Jones – Electric Breakfast, Brian Cremer – Sod the Wedding, Marina Stubbs -Mischief, Sally Watson – Nearly Ninety and Still Living the Australia, Doreen Dugdale -Reminder Phone Call Made, Chris Trundle -Ode to the Fairy on the Christmas Tree, Jaffar Martazavi – Christmas Magic.
We all enjoyed the festive spirit including a huge buffet, provided by the members of the group. The Hatchery looks forward to another good year. Sorry to those who I missed out on camera! I did ask if you really did not want your picture taken, if really hate it, email me and I will remove…not too many please!!! Take care Ann