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Farpais Bhliadhnail 2025
Annual Competition 2025
Annual Competeetion 2025
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Welcome to our 2025 competition, settling nicely once again around the Vernal Equinox. Our submission window is a month this year with entries accepted from the 15th March - 15th April. Our judges will work their magic with results announced at end of May, Those successful will be invited to attend our June AGM for presentations and to share their success.
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Once our Winners are notified, the results will be announced on social media and in our June news mail .
Ann MacKinnon – 2025 MAKAR
Open: Poetry
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I would like to see poems which are dealing with the big issues. Those issues are unchanging although the world we live in is changing rapidly.
The main subjects are, as always birth, love and death but I would be hoping to see an unusual take on them.
Sometimes we forget that we have five senses and, in poetry we should use as many of them as possible.
It is always interesting to see different forms of poetry and poetic techniques used too. A good image can really lift a poem.
According to Simon Armitage- ‘A poem should not just tell you something but should create a sensation.’ I will be looking to be surprised and to leave the poem still thinking about it.
Open: Short Story
​‘One feeling I’ve got the now is that we need more Hope… and how often as writers we navigate the world in our writing… we are living in hard times but can lighten our load by sharing our stories and connecting through writing. Whilst, we don’t usually have a set theme for our competition, I’d love tae see yer Hope shining through- This can have as broad an interpretation as you like - the hard times needn't be these ones and the hope may be well hidden - but we'll be impressed if writers can find real optimism in their stories, however tempered by tragedy it may be. Scots language is welcome but not at all compulsory, and stories for young folk are as welcome as those for an older audience.
Alan McClure – 2025 SCRIEVER
Scots
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It wuid be grand tae see Scots yaised to deal wi ongaun issues in a modren idiom. A guid image can fair tell a story. Ye shuild aye show but no tell so no too much o the abstract. Gie us concrete picters tae fill oor heids.
Hae a beginning, a middle and an end though no necessarily in the order.
It disnae hae tae be true but it needs tae soond as if it is. Just gie it laldy and enjoy yersel and I’ll enjoy readin it.
Ann MacKinnon – 2025 MAKAR
Open: Flash Fiction
"I am looking forward to reading a wide range of pieces demonstrating various storytelling approaches. Stories that particularly resonate with me tend to have strong characters or a unique perspective. The narrative doesn't need to come to a nice, rounded end, strictly speaking – with flash fiction, we don't have much to play with! – and I certainly enjoy some lingering doubt or an unanswered question every now and again. Emotional depth is a must, for me, to bring a piece like that to an impactful close.”
Liane McKay
Bio: Liane McKay is a writer and editor from Hamilton, now settled in Alloa. Her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies across the UK. In 2021 she completed an MLitt in publishing and founded Soor Ploom Press where she publishes flash fiction and very short poems.
Gàidhlig / Scottish Gaelic
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Tha mi ag iarraidh dàin fhaicinn a chuireas clisgeadh orm. Siuthadaibh!
I want to see poems in Gaelic that give me a start. Shoot!
Rody Gorman
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Bio: Rugadh Rody Gorman an am Baile Àtha Cliath sa bhliadhna 1960 agus tha e ag obair mar sgrìobhadair, mar dheasaiche, eadar-theangair agus neach-teagaisg. Tha e air bàrdachd fhoillseachadh ann an Gàidhlig na h-Alba is na h-Èireann agus anns a’ Bheurla, Fax (1996), Flora From Lusitania (2005), Zonda? Khamsin? Sharaav? Camanchaca? (2006) agus Beartan Briste/Burstbrokenshroudloomdeeds (2011) nam measg. Is iad na cruinneachaidhean as ùire leis Cuala, Dothra (2021), Lorg Eile/Final Call (2022) agus Sa Chnoc (2023), air an deach Duais Ruaraidh MhicThòmais 2024 a bhuileachadh. Chaidh an dreach a chuir e air sgeul Buile Shuibhne, Sweeney: an Intertonguing fhoillseachadh le luchd-foillseachaidh Francis Boutle anns a’ Mhàrt 2024.
Rody Gorman was born in Dublin in 1960, and works as a writer, an editor, a translator and a lecturer. He has published collections of poetry in English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic including Fax (1996), Flora From Lusitania (2005) and Zonda? Khamsin? Sharaav? Camanchaca? (2006) and Beartan Briste/Burstbrokenshroudloomdeeds (2011). His most recent collections are Cuala, Dothra (2021), Lorg Eile/Final Call (New and Selected Poems, 2022) and Sa Chnoc (2023), which was awarded the Derick Thompson Poetry Prize 2024. His version of Buile Shuibhne, Sweeney: an Intertonguing was published by Francis Boutle Publishers in March 2024.