---
title: Sangschaw 2025
summary: >-
  The Sangschaw opens for entries, Wullie Hershaw launches his poetic
  reflections on the 1984 Miner's Strike, and Grace Stewart-Skinner needs your
  help to complete a unique album project.
---

## Sangschaw 2025

Our annual writing competition, the _Sangschaw_, is open for submissions until
the 31st of January! As ever, we will provide feedback for every entry
regardless of whether or not you win an award. It’s unusual for competitions
like us to provide feedback on entries, but we think it’s important to help
writers develop. We have three prizes:

- The **Robert McLellan Prize for Scots Prose**: up to 3000 words of original
  Scots prose.
- The **John MacPhail Law Prize for Translation**: up to 3000 words of original
  translation into Scots from another language. Provide along with a copy of
  the original text.
- The **Hugh MacDiarmaid Tassie for Poetry**: up to 60 lines of original Scots
  poetry.

Writers new and old are all welcome, so don’t hold back! We look forward to
having your entries!

You can enter for £5 for one category, £10 for two or £12 for all three,
whether that’s all in the same category or spread across the three. You can
submit either by email or by post.

### Submitting by email

If you would like to submit by email, first pay by bank transfer to the
following account. Remember, it’s £5 for one submission or £12 for three.

<dl>
  <dt>Account name</dt>
  <dd>Scots Language Society</dd>

  <dt>Account number</dt>
  <dd>00153458</dd>

  <dt>Sort code</dt>
  <dd>83 47 00</dd>
</dl>

Then, send your entries to [failte@go-plus.net](mailto:failte@go-plus.net)
along with proof of payment. For example, you could send a picture of your bank
statement, or a copy of the transaction reference.

### Submitting by post

If you would rather submit by post, send your entries with cash or cheque, as
well as your name and address on a separate sheet of paper, to the following
address:

<address>
Sangschaw<br />
c/o 6 Dryden Place<br />
Edinburgh<br />
EH9 1RP<br />
</address>

Remember, it’s £5 per submission or £12 for three. Address any cheque to the Scots Language Society.

## Orgreave Stations

Wullie Hershaw, editor of _Lallans_, will be hosting the official launch of his
new poetic sequence, _The Orgreave Stations_, at the Scottish Poetry Library in
Edinburgh next week.

The sonnet sequence reflects on the 1984 Miner's Strike through the lens of a
radical retelling of the Stations of the Cross.

Get your tickets on [Eventbrite][orgreave-eventbrite]!

## Avoch album project

Musician and proud Avochie [Grace Stewart Skinner][gs-skinner] has been toiling
away at an album project which seeks to celebrate the vulnerable dialect of her
home village of Avoch, near Inverness.

With the help of corporate funders including Creative Scotland, the hard work of
research and recording the voices of local people is now all but done. All that
remains is to take it to the studio, but with funding for musical projects being
rather tight, she's seeking a little more help to get the project over the line.

To learn more or pledge some support for the project, have a look at Grace's
[Crowdfunder][avochie-crowdfunder].

[avochie-crowdfunder]: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/auchies-spikkin-auchie---debut-album#start
[gs-skinner]: https://gracestewartskinner.co.uk
[orgreave-eventbrite]: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-edinburgh-launch-of-the-orgreave-stations-by-william-hershaw-tickets-953488699367