WINNER of the NEIL GUNN MEMORIAL PRIZE 2015

I don’t enter so many competitions these days. Just a handful, really. I use them to test stories, to see if they have legs and can stand up for themselves. So, to have one stand tall and take its first steps and for those steps to be confident and striding, well, that’s something very pleasing.

Today the results of the Neil Gunn Memorial Prize 2015 were made public. This is a competition that comes round every two years. It was once won by Michael Faber – yes THE Michael Faber, so it has some prestige attached… plus Neil Gunn was a particular love of mine when I had just graduated from University with a degree in Literature.

I put in a story to this year's competition that had faltered in another competition. I gave it a tweak or two and threw it in. I hoped to maybe get on the commended list and had no expectation of standing on the podium. So, a bit of a surprise to find myself winning the competition. I am so thrilled with this. It is something very shiny and bright to put on my writing cv.

That’s two competition wins in Scotland in the past twelve months, having won the William Soutar Prize 2014. Feels good.

Congratulations to all the other writers who gained recognition this year through this competition. And many thanks to all involved with the running of the competition.

One small fly in the ointment: I was prevented by work commitments from attending the award ceremony today and I do try to make it to these events believing that as a winner or a placed writer there is a duty to support the competition by being present. I know it will have been a wonderful day.

KINDNESS (AGAIN)

It is hard to be always kind. 

Even if it is a natural predisposition, there will be times when kindness lags behind, cowering in the shadows or under tables or behind curtains. When one is slighted, and one’s face publicly slapped, or one’s character openly shamed, or worse, then it is easy for kindness to not show itself. I regret those moments in my life, just as George Saunders regrets those moments when he might have shown kindness and simply did not. *

If I could go back, I would change those moments, not turning the other cheek perhaps, but being kinder at least and thereby being less unkind. You see, I believe kindness to be important – not simply good manners, like holding the door open for someone to go through, or thanking someone who passes you the salt, but something human and essential.

Where I can, I teach kindness – not for any reward other than it makes the world a better place and I think we should be working to do that. I don’t just teach it, I try to exemplify it in what I do and who I am.

Today I found a boy who did not have any lunch. I had no money in my pockets to give him so he could go and buy some lunch. Instead I shared the lunch I had - it was just a cheese sandwich and a small satsuma orange and a fun-size bag of chocolate buttons, but it was something. And it was a kindness.

Today I reached out to someone else, in a gesture of kindness. A small thing again – a word of encouragement is all, a word to support something that she had said. This person did not accept my proffered kindness.

It is not always easy to be kind, but I believe we should always try to be so. It is a human act and an essential act. It should define us – to ourselves and to others. It should be on show but not for show. 

And our lapses of kindness should be regrets we seek to right before it is ever too late.

* see earlier post on George Saunders and kindness