JOANNA WINS WRITER'S BLOCK 2024

It's many congratulations to Joanna Bawa who has won Writer's Block 2024 with her brilliant story DeathDefy. 

The Writers Block Challenge was set by Creative Writer Author, Linda Spurr, who chose the theme: Tidying Up.

The results were announced at our face-to-face meeting at Quakers Hall on 4 November and Joanna was joined on the podium by Andrea Neidle (2nd place) and Mike Lansdown (3rd place).

To read all 14 entries and to find our more about the competition, please CLICK HERE.

Watford Writers' Joanna Bawa entered the Victory Radio Station Pick of the Pops competition 2024 with her story, Total Eclipse of the Heart, and we are delighted to confirm Jo's story achieved a Top 40 placing. Well done our Jo!

For the full Competition Finalist listing, please CLICK HERE  

A series of creative writing courses have been arranged in association with Buckinghamshire Council (Adult Learning) and taking place in our area:

2025:

• Saturday 29th March at Highcrest – ‘Poetry with a Pen and a Passion’
• Saturday 26th April at Gerrards Cross – ‘Getting to Grips with the Novel’
• Monday 2nd June at Beaconsfield – ‘Life Writing – a Memoir for Your Grandchild, Posterity or Publication’.

Please click here or click on the logo left for full list of creative writing courses offered by Buckinghamshire Council.

Enquiries - Email:  studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.co.uk 

Our thanks to Jan Moran Neil and Chris McDermott for the information.

Congratulations to Melville, who has the interest of an American Theatre company, Dean Productions, to produce a Podcast of his play, The Distressed Table,

The play has been recently staged at London's Barons Court Theatre, London.

The Podcast is to be released early next year, as part of their '2025 Premiere The Play' season.

This year, the Farnham Literary Festival's Flash Fiction competition attracted 200 stories from various parts of the world - a number from professional writers. 

Watford Writers' very own Chris McDermott has received the news that his first entry, When Pink Overcomes Red, was successfully placed in the Top 10 (although was not the winner or runner-up). This story was previously written for the Watford LBGTQ+ event organised by Alex Williams - without that particular event, Chris would not have written the piece.

Chris's second story, The Sun King, was placed within the top 30.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LOGO (left) for all the details.

Many congratulation Chris.

Earlier this year Watford Area Arts Forum (WAAF) announced a competition based on Elton John’s iconic album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  The competition was divided into two categories, art and literature. Entrants were asked to use the song titles, lyrics, illustrations on the album cover or take any inspiration from the record itself. This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the album’s release, that might make you feel old!

Helen Nicell of WAAF said “I am delighted we had twenty entries in each category for the competition, with an exhibition at Watford Museum displaying the entries throughout September, the final results being announced last Saturday. Initially there was a public vote, then the ten shortlisted entries were passed to independent judges. We were very fortunate that the original artist of the album’s cover, Ian Beck, agreed to judge the art competition.  He was unable to attend on Saturday, but local Art Historian, Ian Welland announced the results on his behalf. We were also very pleased that Mick Callanan, Delivery Director for the Orwell Youth Prize and an English Teacher for over 30 years, agreed to judge the literary category.”

The prize money for the competitions was kindly donated by Watford Council and Aga Dychton, Deputy Mayor, presented these, the winners also received the WAAF trophy.  

The results were:

Literary Competition  - 

1st Place - Sumi Watters – Aeroplanes and Electric Boots 

2nd Place - Liz Shaw - The Tale of the Horny-Back Toad  

3rd Place - Veronica Montgomery - The Mystery of Alice Vaughan Williams

Art Competition - 

1st Place - Louise Welland - Our Yellow Brick Road 

2nd Place - Nadi Shanassi – Saturday Night

3rd Place - Brian Cowan - Goodbye Norma Jean

Photo: Brian Cowan, Louise Welland, Sumi Watters, Mick Callanan (literary judge) and Cllr Aga Dychton, Deputy Mayor of Watford. 

Louise Welland’s winning art piece was a collage based on Watford's old and local celebrities. Watford Museum have requested if this piece could be donated to hang in the new Watford Museum and Louise was delighted to agree to this. 

Grateful thanks to the judges, Watford Council, Watford Museum and to everyone that took part. 

Thanks for the music Elton, and thanks for suggesting the competition Ian Welland.

The children of Colnbrook School were recently treated to a morning of storytelling when members of a local writers’ group visited. Taking inspiration from a book cover design illustrated by the pupils, members of the KidsLit group wrote original stories and poems, which were entered into a competition organised by the South Oxhey school. The children chose their favourite from the eleven entries—a charming story in rhyme titled The Elephant Who Went to the Moon by Susan de Silva.  

“I was delighted my story was chosen,’ Susan said. ‘It was wonderful to read to the children of Colnbrook. I look forward to seeing more of their illustrations.”

“We were grateful for the opportunity to work with and share our stories with the students of Colnbrook School,” another KidsLits Lit Author commented following the event. ‘We would love to collaborate with other local schools in the future.”   

Caroline Aplin, the Headteacher said, “Colnbrook have really enjoyed working collaboratively with the writers. The children initially designed a front cover and our Chair of Governors, Hilary McDermott, put us in touch with the writers, who took on board the title of the story and wrote some wonderful stories. The student voice chose a winner, and we were delighted that many of the authors were able to come into school and read to us. Collaboration with our local community is very important to us as a special school and we are grateful for the opportunity to be part of this.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS OF KIDS LIT AT COLNBROOK 

The KidsLit group evolved from Watford Writers in 2020, when it was realised there were many in the group interested in writing for children. They meet fortnightly on Thursdays on Zoom and have previously performed works at local events.  

If your school might be interested in working with the group please contact Chris McDermott, benhannick@aol.com 

Further information on KidsLit, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Watford Writers very own Jan Rees celebrates our wonderful town with her specially written prose. To see this excellent presentation and hear Jan's superb recital performance:

Please Click Here