A GROUP of local writers who used the isolation of the Covid pandemic to create a literary collaboration have been rewarded for their efforts with shortlisting in a prestigious independent publishing prize.
North Star, an anthology by members of the Women Aloud Northern Ireland (WANI) writers’ collective, is among the shortlistees of the Carousel Aware Prize (CAP) for Independently Published Authors.
Published by Leschenault Press, North Star features short stories and poems from published authors, novelists and poets from North Down and Ards.
The CAP awards aim to provide a platform to showcase the cream of Irish self-published authors, bringing them to the attention of book shops, distributors, and the media in Ireland and abroad, with all money raised going to the mental health charity Aware.
The North Star collection helped bridge the gap between the sudden vacuum created by Covid, and the writers’ usual literary outlets including regular public readings, workshops and festivals – all halted by the pandemic.
Among the beautiful prose and clever rhyming couplets are works from writers such as Groomsport woman, Kerry Buchanan, who has published three novels with Joffe Books.
So far, the former vet has published Knife Edge, Small Bones, and Deadly Shores and is finalising the title of her fourth. Kerry’s inclusion, The Drumlin’s Tale, is a story of life across the aeons which drips with metaphor and reflects the virus that spawned the lockdown and the anthology.
Amy Louise Wyatt, an A-level lecturer at the Bangor campus of South Eastern Regional College, and editor of the Bangor Literary Journal, penned Beannchar for North Star. The talented poet was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award in 2018 and won the 2019 Poetrygram Prize. She has compiled the pamphlet A Language I understand with Indigo Dreams.
Meg Owens McCleery is a retired college lecturer who lives in Bangor. She came third in the annual Bangor Poetry Competition and is now working on her first novel, a murder mystery set in a fictional town based on Greyabbey, the village of its focus also inspiring her North Star poem, Greyabbey.
Céline Holmes is a native of Normandy, France, who lives in Bangor. She works in tourism while writing a family saga and has poetry published in magazines. For North Star, she wrote In Memoriam, about the tenth anniversary of a woman’s murdered teenage son.
Lesley Walsh, a journalist, wrote Georgie, In Stockings, a short story inspired by true events for which she received a bursary from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to turn it into a novel. She is working on a mystery trilogy for young readers and won second prize in an international short story competition in 2017.
Gaynor Kane, an east Belfast woman living in Portavogie, wrote A Memoir of Eveleen Forrester, inspired by family folklore. She is author of Memory Forest, and Eight Types of Love, published by Hedgehog Poetry Press, and a micro-poetry collection, Circling the Sun.
Karen Mooney, from Ballyhalbert wrote Scenting Change at Mount Stewart, a poem penned in memory of Edith, Lady Londonderry. Karen has been scribbling lyrics and poetry since 2016, with her work being published in the USA, UK and Ireland.
The collection also features the works of established author, Kelly Creighton, who lives in Newtownards and wrote the acclaimed The Bones of It and the DI Harriet Sloane crime series. Her inclusion in North Star is an ode to her childhood in Bangor, Home Truths.
North Star was conceived by WANI chair at the time, writer Angeline King, an established self-published novelist from Larne, who suggested members turn their quarantine time into a marketable product.
“Our writers represent a wide spectrum of publishing experiences, but this shortlisting acknowledges our own collective spirit or independence as women in an environment that did not traditionally favour women. Thanks to our committee and current chairperson Hilary McCollum, to the editorial team of North Star and to those writers who contributed to the anthology. Thanks also to Leschenault Press for enabling this independent publication.”
The patron of the CAP awards, Booker prizewinner Paul Lynch, said the CAP Awards promote ‘excellence in Irish independent book publishing, and are also a reader’s guarantee of quality’.
The winners in a variety of categories will be announced in Dublin on Friday, November 1.
