Moniack Mhor and The Bridge Awards are delighted to announce Rue Baldry as the winner of the 2017 Emerging Writer Award. Rue wins a tailor-made package of writing support, that includes writing retreats at Moniack Mhor and one on one mentoring.
Having been raised in Essex and Dar Es Salaam,Rue is now a mother of five living in York, England. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of York and an MA in Creative Writing from Leeds University. Her short stories have appeared in Mslexia, The Broken City, The Honest Ulsterman and on the Reader Berlin online showcase. Her scripts have had amateur and Youth theatre productions and professional workshops. Her website is at ruebaldry.wordpress.com and her Twitter account is @R_E_Baldry.
Rue’s winning entry was an extract from the work in progress novel Uncle Raymond, which is the life story of a an ex-alcoholic trans woman stage magician, now working as a children’s entertainer, recollected as she performs at a party on the Saturday after the EU referendum.
Runner-up – Emily Prince
Emily is from Melbourne, Australia and has fallen head-over-heels for Scotland. She has written for Voiceworks, Theatrepeople and is the editor of Pride & Possibilities, the online journal for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. By day she works as a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library.
You can find her on twitter as @miss_e_prince
Highly Commended – Bryony Stocker
Bryony is a regular visitor to the centre as she finds the retreats help balance her work as a management consultant with completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Strathclyde
Bryony’s entry was an extract from her novel-in-progress: Keeper. Set at the turn of the 19th century the story weaves real events into a traumatised soldier’s hunt for a killer against the backdrop of the battle for control of Regency London’s criminal underworld.