Herald poetry editor Lesley Duncan and Lennie Pennie launch Scots competition
ST Andrew’s Day offers a pleasant literary challenge to poets writing in Scots. Announced today, the annual Mccash Scots Poetry Competition, run jointly by The Herald and Glasgow University, both celebrates our traditional language in all its forms, and aims to support it.
This year a first prize of £200 and three runner-up prizes of £100 are to be won.
Some years we have laid down a theme – from the Sir Walter Scott quote, “This is my own, my native land,” to one Scots granny’s cheery observation that “Change is lichtsome”; and, most recently, when Covid still loomed ominously, “Thinking of others”.
This year, however, poets can submit material on any theme of their choice.
The prize was endowed by a former engineering graduate of Gilmorehill, James Mccash, who had himself won an earlier Herald poetry competition in the 1970s. In the last 20 years it has become a major landmark in Scotland’s cultural calendar after the university joined forces with the Herald to promote it to readers worldwide.
The judges are Professor Alan Riach of the chair of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University, Lennie Pennie, poet and Herald columnist, and Lesley Duncan, Herald poetry editor.
Poets can submit three original, as yet unpublished, entries, up to 30 lines long.
They should be typed or handwritten legibly on A4 paper with address and contact details on the back, and sent to Mccash
Scots Poetry Competition, c/o Lesley Duncan, The Herald, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow East Investment Park, Glasgow G 32 8FG, to arrive by Burns Night, January 25, 2023.