Special Mentions in the 2020 Saboteur Awards
We’re so pleased to announce that several Myriad authors received special mentions for the 2020 Saboteur Awards, including Elaine Chiew for The Heartsick Disapora and our Spotlight Authors Ana Tewson-Bozic, Elizabeth Ridout, Georgina Aboud, Jacqueline Haskell, Tara Gould and Sarah Windebank for the Spotlight Books series. Tara received a second mention for her novella, The Haunting of Strawberry Water.
You can review the entire shortlist here.
Sarah Windebank for New Writing South
What are the challenges of your own life experiences, and do these present in your writing, as concerns, themes, ways of thinking about writing?
‘I have suffered from mental health problems since my adolescence, most likely as a consequence of being sexually abused as a fifteen year old. Thus, I have self-harmed, suffered from bulimia nervosa and depression, been diagnosed with psychotic episodes and paranoia and consequently experienced material poverty. Sometimes I wonder, though, because of my involvement in women’s and LGBTQ politics and writing groups, whether it is just a lack of acceptance on the part of the psychiatric services that people are gay, which has caused many of my problems.
Writing as catharsis, has helped me with psychiatric and social problems. Taking an MA in Creative Writing and Personal Development at Sussex University, a course that focused on the therapeutic as well as the aesthetic purpose of writing fiction and poetry, has been helpful.
Life in a psychiatric hostel, or a halfway house for homeless youth, or a council flat alone in an alien place with new born twins, makes me want to speak out, and so some of my writing, I hope, has a radical bite to it.’
Sarah Windebank, author of poetry collection Memories of a Swedish Grandmother is interviewed by New Writing South about her life experiences, writing and what she’s currently working on.
Read in full HERE.
VIVA Brighton on the Spotlight series
‘The series is dazzling. Such small books, making such noise… These collections have been sending ripples through the local literary scene.’
VIVA Brighton showcased the Spotlight series in their March 2020 issue. Read the full review by columnist Anna Burtt.