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NLS Short list announced for sought after poetry award

Media
Release 24
April 2008

Short list announced for sought after
poetry award

The
National Library of Scotland has announced the shortlist for the 2008 Callum
Macdonald Memorial Award (CMMA) for poetry pamphlet publishing in Scotland. The short listed entries are:

  • If
    Ah Could Talk Tae The Artists     by Hugh Bryden, published in Dumfries by
    Roncadora Press.
  • Treeds by
    Laureen Johnson, published in Edinburgh by
    Hansel Cooperative Press.
  • One
    Light Burning     by Donny O’Rourke, published in Glasgow by
    Bonny Day Books.
  • The
    Currying Shop     by Hazel Cameron, published in Yorkshire by
    Imago Media.
  • The
    Oboist’s Bedside Book     by Margaret Christie, published in Glenrothes
    by Happenstance .
  • Edinburgh Poems by Duncan
    Glen, published in Kirkcaldy by Akros Publications

The
winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the National Library of
Scotland’s Causewayside building on Wednesday 7 May at 6pm, when all the entries will be on
display.

The Callum Macdonald Memorial Award is given in recognition of
publishing skill and effort in the field of poetry pamphlets. The award was
created by the Library in memory of Scottish literary publisher Callum
Macdonald, and is administered in association with Tessa Ransford, former
Director of the Scottish Poetry Library and Callum Macdonald's widow. All
Scottish publishers of poetry in pamphlet form are eligible to apply. The award
is supported by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust.

The award also aims
to encourage the preservation of printed material of this kind and all entries
submitted are taken into the collections of the National Library of Scotland.
As a result the Library currently holds nearly 250 of the finest contemporary
Scottish poetry pamphlets in its collections. You can find out more about
pamphlet poetry by logging on to www.scottish-pamphlet-poetry.com

ENDS
Journalists and photographers are welcome
to attend the Award ceremony.

Contact details:
Bruce Blacklaw, PR & External Affairs Officer
T 0131 623 3762 (direct) 07766790939
(m) [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

About the National
Library of Scotland

  • The National
    Library of Scotland is a major European research library and is the
    world’s leading centre for the study of Scotland and the Scots - an information treasure trove for Scotland’s knowledge, history and culture.

  • The
    Library’s collections are of world-class importance. Key areas include
    rare books, manuscripts, maps, music, official publications, business
    information, science and technology, and the modern and foreign
    collections.

  • The Library
    holds well over 13 million items, including printed items, approximately
    100,000 manuscripts and nearly 2 million maps. Every week it collects
    approximately 6,000 new items via Legal Deposit.

  • NLS holds
    many of Scotland’s literary treasures including the last letter of Mary
    Queen of Scots, written six hours before her execution; the Order for the
    Massacre of Glencoe 1692; the world’s greatest collections of Sir Walter
    Scott and Thomas Carlyle manuscripts; works of Robert Burns; Robert Louis
    Stevenson papers; a Gutenberg bible (1455); the Murthly Hours (late 13th C); and modern collections of Scottish writers.

  • See www.nls.uk for further information about the
    Library and its collections.

About the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award

· www.scottish-pamphlet-poetry.com

· Callum Macdonald
MBE, was a Scottish literary publisher who encouraged the practice of poetry
pamphlet publishing in Scotland. Through his friendship with the poets Sydney Goodsir Smith, Robert
Garioch and Hugh MacDiarmid he began printing poetry pamphlets. Callum
Macdonald also published books of poetry in Scots, Gaelic and English through
his company, Macdonald Printers and Publishers, which he founded in 1957.

· The judges for the
2008 Award were: Tessa Ransford, poet and editor (1988-98) of Lines Review; Maureen Sangster, poet and
winner of the 2007 Award; Lesley Duncan, Poetry Editor, The Herald; and Tom Dalgleish, Chairman of the Trustees of
Macdonald Printers.

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