The McLellan Poetry Prize 2012

First Prize £1000, 2nd Prize £250, 10 commendations £25

Closing date 30th June 2012

The McLellan Poetry Prize is awarded in memory of Robert McLellan, the poet, playwright and short story writer who spent his working life in High Corrie on the Isle of Arran. The prize is administered by the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust as part of the annual McLellan Festival held on the island. The festival is dedicated to fostering the literary, visual and performing arts with a special emphasis on encouraging new work.
This year we are very pleased to welcome as our judge the Scottish poet and novelist Jackie Kay. ( see left)
Born in Edinburgh of Nigerian/Scottish parentage, adopted by a white couple and brought up in Glasgow, Jackie has written extensively on divided, displaced or mixed identity. 
Her poetry collections include The Adoption Papers which won the Saltire Society Scottish 1st Book of the Year Award , Other Lovers which won the Somerset Maugham Award and most recently Fiere which was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards.
In 1998, her first novel, Trumpet, based on the life of the jazz trumpeter Billy Tipton won the Guardian Fiction Prize and she has since published two volumes of short stories, Why Don’t You Stop Talking  followed by Wish You Were Here. Red Dust Road, the story of her search for her birth parents was published in 2010. Her latest publication is the short story collection Reality Reality, out this year. She is presently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle.  She lives in Manchester.

To enter online see www.mclellanpoetrycompetition.co.uk