Congratulations to all our Literary Competition winners this year. The stories, poems and memoirs were all of a very high standard and the judges found ranking them a difficult task. Of course, the nature of competitions always means only some of the writers’ work is published, but everyone should be proud of their efforts in whatever category they entered. Reading the judges selections in this edition of SCOPE will serve to encourage all writers to develop their own skills and continue to produce creative work of outstanding quality.
The award ceremony was held later than advertised due to the Covid-induced lockdown in South-East Queensland which saw the last five days of our Festival cancelled. Plans are underway to re-schedule some of the events and we will be announcing details as they are developed. The Literary Competition Award Ceremony was a first for the FAWQ with a live audience in attendance and an online audience on Zoom. There were some technical issues, and we will learn from the experience and develop more effective and efficient communication in future events. Combining Zoom with a live audience, enables us to connect with people in regional areas or any person who finds it difficult to attend the event in person. We plan to hold more events in this manner as time goes on.
The Festival events that were held before lockdown were well attended and feedback received was very positive. In all fifteen events were held in eight Moreton Bay Region Libraries with a total attendance across all events of 300 people. Another 110 people had registered for events we were forced to cancel, so we can confidently say we fulfilled our aim of “bringing writers and readers together.” We will make a full report by the end of this year when all re-scheduled events have been held, including the launch of Hugh Allan’s excellent book “History of FAWQ.” We hope to hold a public celebration of the heritage of the QAAA/FAWQ in conjunction with the book launch and we will be advertising the event to a wide audience.
