"Seven bums and fourteen legs,
a brazen ecstasy which begs
the question some of us are asking -
is Peter Goulding multi-tasking?"

Martin Parker, Editor, Lighten Up Online

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Being WOWed in Salthill

The WOW awards are on this Friday down in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill which, for those outside of Ireland, is the other side of Galway. There are twenty nominees, ten for poetry and twenty for those narrative poems without line breaks that people call Short Stories.
A very small seismic event (< 3.5 on the Richter scale, enough to rattle a teacup) in Galway accidentally caused my poem, Thicker than water, to fall from the discarded pile into the shortlist pile and before they could rectify it, the results had been announced.
Other poets I know on the list are Eleanor Hooker, who is developing quite a reputation, the gloriously off-the-wall Miceal Kearney and Boyne Writers' Tom Dredge, who bizarrely has decided not to cancel an eight week holiday to Australia to attend the event. Ironically, this now gives me a chance of collecting a prize as I have promised to receive one on his behalf if he is successful.
Will probably travel down a little bit early so I can get daylight pictures of the lighthouses on Mutton Island and in Galway Harbour (Leverets), which mist and rain prevented me from getting in February. Sadly, I will not be overnighting but will have to return shortly after the ceremony is over. Not that I'd be having much champagne anyway. Not after the Millennium.

6 comments:

  1. They keep on advertising Stena deals from Stranraer on the tele at the moment - 'Hotel Included' - but having just looked at a map it looks significantly far from Belfast and involves roads with strange letters (E1? Am I reading that right?).
    So we probably won't be joining you, but the very best of luck!
    What happened in the Millenium? Do lighthouse spotters wear anoraks?

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  2. Congratulations, Pete...and best of luck!

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  3. Good luck in Galway Peter. Bring back the prize (for Tom!)

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  4. Hi Titus, No Es down south - no idea what they have in the North! And yes, if I had an anorak today, I'd wear it. God its miserable.
    Thanks Connie. I think I'd need more than luck though.
    Hi Michael - yes I hope I do!

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  5. Hi Peter,
    Congratulations and well done
    Alan McKean

    www.spanglefish.com/alanmckean

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  6. Good luck! Intrigued by that Millenium/champagne reference!

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