The Wee Gaitherin organisers are delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural Sheila Templeton Bursary!
Sheila, who sadly died last year, was from a working-class North-east background, a brilliant poet herself, who was always keen to support and encourage other people’s talent.
The bursary funds the attendance at the Festival of two young poets who might not otherwise have been able to afford to take part. The worthy winners, this year, are Elspeth Wilson from Edinburgh and Eleanor Tennyson from London.
There is more about our awardees in this year's Festival Programme which is now available to download here.
Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her nature writing has been shortlisted for Canongate’s Nan Shepherd Prize and Penguin’s Write Now scheme. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, published by Written Off Publishing, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s 2023 Poetry Book of the Year. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster 2025. She can usually be found in or near the sea.
Eleanor Tennyson is a writer from London - her appearance at The Wee Gaitherin will be her first live reading! Her written word appears/is forthcoming in The Iowa Review, berlin.lit, Worm’s Magazine, Montez Press Radio, The Quarterless Review, Freedom Press, Paprika, and more; and been shown at The Pipe Factory in Glasgow and Stroud Valley Artspace. She was a member of Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre Young Writers Workshop. She is the author of The Hairy Manifesto, published with the support of Creative Scotland (The Good Press). She received her Poetry MFA from Columbia University.
Sheila Templeton 1941 - 2023
Sheila Templeton was originally from Aberdeen and in later life lived in Glasgow. She wrote beautifully in both Doric Scots and English within her 5 poetry collections. Her work is also published in many magazines, newspapers and anthologies. Sheila won the McCash Scots Language Poetry Competition 4 times. She also won a number of other prizes, including the Robert McLellan and the Neil Gunn Adult Poetry Competitions. From 2001 to 2011 she was Makar of the Federation of Writers Scotland. She was an engaging performer of her own work. In 2020 she was nominated by Creative Scotland for Scots Writer of the Year, as part of the Scots Language Awards. https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/sheila-templeton/