The Early Days of a Better Nation

Thursday, February 03, 2011



Poetry competition results



As a great poet said, 'Now is the hour of the furnaces, and only light should be seen'. But life, and poetry, and even poetry competitions, go on even when the world is shaking. So ... belatedly, here's an account, with links to the winners and their work, of the event at the Scottish Poetry Library last Saturday. The quality as well as volume of entries - from around the world - was high, and the competition attracted published as well as beginning poets. Kelley Swain, who has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Forum and took part in our Social Session on poetry, has given the competition and the winning entries a generous and detailed write-up in New Scientist's online Culture Lab.

One of the judges, Kona MacPhee, who spoke after Steve Sturdy had introduced the event and the work of the Forum, was very enthusiastic about the importance of science fiction, recounting how she had read all the SF stories of H.G. Wells in childhood, before going on to talk about the importance of poetry as a means of developing an emotional understanding of the consequences and implications of the sometimes arcane new life sciences.

All in all, a very successful and heartening event, and a worthwhile project, of which all involved and especially Pippa can be proud.

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2 Comments:

Ken,

This is shamelessly off topic, and I'm usually too shy to post here, but I was curious enough to seek your response to overcome that shyness - so:

Is Newberry's criticism of Stephenson valid, to you?

Neal:

http://www.slate.com/id/2283469/

Stirling:

http://www.correntewire.com/shape_social_progress_i#more

Yes, way off topic, but interesting enough to have its own post. Soon.

(First glance - Newberry's right.)

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