Club History
Ayr Writers? Club
History by Sheila Grant
Ayr Writers? Club was formed
in 1970 and has since grown to become one of the biggest writing clubs
in Scotland. It grew out of a Glasgow University Extra-mural Writing
Class led by Elsie Miller who became the founder member and first
president of the Club. Dorothy Dunbar was the vice president, Janet
Wiltshire the secretary and Ishbel Robertson the treasurer.
The
Club?s very first speaker was Elizabeth Kyle, a local novelist. She was
taken to the meeting by Dorrith Sim and Marian Reid, the only two
founder members still attending the Club.
In over thirty five
years, the Club has helped many members achieve publication. The
syllabus is designed to nurture the tiniest gem of an idea and turn it
into an article, story, poem or performance piece. Workshops in poetry,
drama, fiction, non-fiction and writing for children are held regularly
and led by experienced writers.
Well known writers and authors
visit the club every month to speak and adjudicate. Recent speakers
have included Janice Galloway, Des Dillon, Jenny Colgan, Mairi
Hedderwick, Aileen Paterson, Ian Rankin and Hugh Rae, who writes as
Jessica Stirling, Margaret Thomson Davis, Denise Mina, Joyce Holms,
Maggie Craig, Evelyn Hood, Catherine Czerkawska, Marc Pye and Alex Gray.
The Club meets every Wednesday night from September to the end of May
and welcomes all aspiring writers from total beginners to those who
have already experienced success. The aim of the Club is to see the
members achieve publication. The success can range from a letter to the
local paper to a blockbuster novel. On average, more than twenty
members achieve publication in any one year in poetry, articles,
fiction, children?s writing, drama, radio and television. These
successes can be multiplied still further by the number of items
published by each member.
Most people join with a fixed idea of
the genre they want to write. The workshops run by the club give
members a chance to try all the genres and more than one member has
discovered to their delight that they have a particular flair for
something quite unexpected. There are a number of writing competitions
throughout the year with trophies and book tokens as prizes.
Through the years, the members of Ayr Writers? Club have written for a
wide range of publications including The Herald, Evening
Times, The Scotsman, Scots Magazine, Scottish
Field, Reader`s Digest, Sunday Times, Daily
Express and many other regional newspapers. Women?s magazines that
have published a short story, feature or filler include Woman,
Woman?s Own, Yes magazine, The Lady, Bella,
Best, Woman?s Weekly, My Weekly and the People?s
Friend. Members have also scripted work for Radio Scotland and
Radio Ulster.
Prizes won by club members include diplomas in the
Scottish Open Poetry Competition, a place on the shortlist for the
Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy, first prize in a Calvados competition, and
first prize in the adult section of the South Ayrshire Energy Agency
competition.
In 1996, an anthology of work done by members over
the years was published to coincide with the Burns Bi-centenary and the
Club?s Silver Jubilee. Members take part in the annual Burns an? a?
that Festival, giving readings throughout Ayrshire.
2005 was
Ayr?s 800th anniversary so, to mark the occasion, the Club decided to
organise a National Short Story and Poetry Competition and also a
one-day Creative Writing event. The success of the competitions, with
hundreds of entries from all over the world, inspired the Club to bring
out a book, entitled 800 Words (ISBN 0-9547084-5-8), which
includes the winning entries as well as successful pieces by some of
its members. The book retails at £5.99, as the book costs have been
subsidised by a grant from the National Lottery Awards for All.