Eildon Tree

Did you attend our literary prize-giving event held today at Galashiels Library at the beginning of the year? Read on for more about our writers and your chance to see your work published for Issue 32!

The Open Prize Competition for poems and short stories featured prizes for adults and children, and the winning entries were also published in Issue 31 of Eildon Tree, which is now available at local libraries and online here.

Prize winners           

Adult – Short Stories

1st prize          Humphrey’s Morning by Pamela Bosanquet

2nd prize         The Voice by G E Stallwood

3rd prize          The Musician of Bridge Street by Rachel Hunter

Highly Commended: The Wood by Susan Gray, Reflections from the Bridge by Patricia Watts and Whose Jacket is That? by Carol Beveridge.

Adult – Poetry

1st prize          Keepers Wife by Beverley Casebow

2nd prize         Autumn by Vanessa Matthews

3rd prize          A Sixties Summer by Susan Gray

Highly Commended:   Turbines on Coldingham Moor by Jock Stein, The Way  by Anita John

Bliadhna Nan Caorach (Year of the Sheep) by Beverley Casebow, Walkway at Opatia, Croatia by Morelle Smith, Cirsium Vulgare (Scottish Thistle) by Charlie Lawrie and The Shed by Colin Fleetwood.

Young Writers – Short Stories

1st prize          The Break-in by Adeline Jing Ru Lui

2nd prize         Sid the Salmon by Rose Wheal

3rd prize          8 The Soul Hunters by Lily Henderson

Young Writers – Poetry

1st prize          4Dream Another Dream by Sophia Blaen

2nd prize         Armageddon by Robert Morton

3rd Prize         Autumn by Natalie Beatton

Highly Commended: Trapped by Ellen Roper and What Am I? by Caitlin Jung Xuan Liu

There are very few literary magazines remaining in Scotland (many have closed in the last decade) and Eildon Tree is well known and internationally respected. It is recognised as offering opportunities for new and emerging writers to be published and as such celebrates the strong literary tradition of the Scottish Borders (from Thomas the Ryhmer through Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg to John Buchan).  The literary heritage of the Scottish Borders is both a source of local pride but also a reason to visit for many tourists.

Eildon Tree is a creative writing magazine produced by our Creative Communities Team at Live Borders. The magazine is dedicated to publishing new work, poetry and short stories by new and emerging writers from Scotland, with a focus on Scottish Borders. It also features reviews of plays and new books, poetry, prose, articles and interviews from the Scottish Borders and beyond.

The competition was introduced as way to make this local literary magazine sustainable in the age of austerity. Whilst it was free to enter for young people up to 18 years of age (to honour and celebrate Year of Young People 2018), adults paid £5 per entry, with fees going towards covering costs of printing and publishing Issue 31.

“Eildon Tree’s new competition format represents a unique opportunity for poets and fiction writers from and beyond the Borders to make a name for themselves, as well as still having the opportunity of seeing their work published in a highly polished, esteemed literary magazine,” explains Julian Colton, Eildon Tree editor.

The next issue of Eildon Tree is due out in May as part of Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, which will comprise submissions on the theme of ‘Connected’. The editors would like to invite submissions from anyone who has experienced mental health issues and would encourage them to submit their work, even if they are new to writing.

The magazine’s editors Julian Colton, Iona Macgregor, Sara Clark and Carol Norris are local writers who work to support others to develop and improve their writing and get published. They work with groups including Kelso Writers Group and the Peebles library group.

Whether you are brand new to writing or are a published author, we would love to hear from you! Find out more about the Connected issue and details on how to enter here.

Live Borders is a charity. Every penny you spend with us is reinvested into supporting active, creative and healthy communities in the Scottish Borders.