National Galleries of Scotland Writing Competition

On the afternoon of Thursday 19 April the National Galleries of Scotland hosted an afternoon of readings of prize-winning entries from the recent writing competition sponsored in part by The Scotsman. While images of the art which had inspired the texts were projected before the audience, readers from the English-Speaking Union and the Scottish Poetry Library gave lively and strong presentations of what had been written.

Present from Dollar Academy were:

Kirsten Findlay – highly commended in the 16-18 group for her “The Shades of Culloden”.

Amy Duffus and Catriona Jardine, both highly commended in the 12-15 group, the former for her poem inspired by the modern “Six Identified Forms” and the latter for her “Beautiful Suffering” based on a Degas painting.

James Ross also highly commended for his witty “Lament of the Rhinostrich”.

Jennifer McIntosh (Form IV), the mostly highly placed of the Dollar pupils, as one of the two runners-up, in the 12-15 group, for her powerful “Anger Unending” based on Paolozzi’s gigantic statue “Vulcan” in the Dean Gallery.

Some of these works can be read in the recent edition of The Galley.