Book Week Scotland 2012
Book Week Scotland 2012
Monday 26th November - Sunday 2nd December
To celebrate the first ever Book Week Scotland the Special Collections Centre hosted a number of exciting, free activities for a variety of audiences. Please visit the Special Collections Learning Blog for more details.
Flash Fiction Competition 2012
As part of Book Week Scotland writers of various ages, experiences and backgrounds were inspired by four fabulous images from the Special Collections Centre’s rare books and archives to write 500-word short stories.
The competition was judged by prize-winning author Dr. Wayne Price, who narrowed the entries down to a special commendation for each image and an overall competition winner. The winning story was written by Julie Pallesen who will receive £50 worth of book vouchers for Waterstones. We want to say a warm thank you to Waterstones at Union Bridge, Aberdeen, for their support of the competition.
The winner was announced by Kevin Stewart MSP at a press event in the Sir Duncan Rice Library. Congratulations to Julie and well done to all of our entrants. You can read Wayne's Flash Fiction judge's report here.
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Every morning, as far back as no one can remember, the masks have been a daily ritual. The mother’s arm fumbles under her pillow and finds the mask. Before she has opened her eyes and consciously become aware that a new day has begun, her hands have pulled the donkey mask over her head and it has fallen into her character. The mother can scream and whine as sad sounding and lonely feeling as a donkey, and sometimes she does. The mother behind the mask screams loudly, her sound however never comes through the fabric of the mask but screams in her own ears. The father on the other hand can be heard from the furthest corner of the village when each morning without a fail, he declares his existence. One hot day the child that is also a dog cannot get his breathing to relax, it is in a rush, short and quick so not enough air can get to get to his lungs. He tries to tell the father, he pulls his father’s clothes, but the father is busy keeping the mother tied up. The cock yells at the dog, “go back and lie down, go back to your room! Go back to your room and lie down!” The dog tucks his tail between his legs, or if he had had a tail he would have done so. His breathing makes his head light and he cannot let go of the father’s clothes. The mother senses it all, but she does not want to see. How can her child be a dog, how did she never notice how it happened. She wants to get away. You can tell by her eyes, by the way she looks somewhere else, upwards, as if there was something up there other than weather. She wants to be less of a donkey and more of a woman. The donkey is not strong enough, and if you tie her she cannot escape. The father knows this trick. He just has to hold on to her, tie her to a pole that is safely secured in the ground then she will not be able to leave. And the dog knows his place, he will always do as he is told. He walks back to his room and lies down, breathing hurts his throat, but after a while it is not so bad and he thinks he might be able to forget. From then on the dog that once was a boy will never take off his mask. |
To read all the other entries to our Flash Fiction competition please click on the links below. Entries may contain strong language. By entering the competition authors gave permission for their work to be published on this website. However copyright remains with the author; please do not reproduce any part of the stories on this page.
Image 1
Image 1 is from the George Washington Wilson & Co. photographic collection which consists of over 37,000 glass plate negatives, produced by the Aberdeen firm between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
The special commendation from the image 1 entries was "A Guide to Identifying Sea-Creatures" by Kirsty Logan.
Read all of the image 1 entries here.
Here are some of the reasons why entrants chose this image:
"I saw this image previously at an exhibition in the library and had the impulse to write a story then but didn’t get round to it; I often write about the sea."
"It’s a wonderful old photo that made me want to know more, but it was what I noticed when I looked again that made me pick it for my story entry."
"The image made me think what might happen to the residents of the neighbouring area if something awful was found under the water."
Image 2
Image 2, "The Mine", is an illustration from Robert Ker Porter's Travelling sketched in Russia and Sweden during 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, published in 1813.
The special commendation from the image 2 entries was "Pomonalia" by Alistair Lawrie.
Read all of the image 2 entries here.
Here are some of the reasons why entrants chose this image:
"I found the picture quite disturbing and it made me think of a mind in turmoil and the depths into which a mind might fall."
"While all the images were interesting, I was fascinated by the white space at bottom right of image 2. It could be snow, or an explosion, or a section left uninked... I found myself speculating more on this image than the others."
"I found it haunting and empty- while the others gave me endings I could work towards, no.2 suggested the beginnings of stories."
Image 3
Image 3, "On thin Ice", is an illustration from Alma Mater, the journal of the University of Aberdeen Students’ Representative Council.
The special commendation from the image 3 entries was "A proportionate reaction" by Laura Tansley.
Read all of the image 3 entries here.
Here are some of the reasons why entrants chose this image:
"I found his manner to be quite attractively cheeky."
"I chose this image because I saw myself writing a story about two sweethearts skating on ice and then I imagined me sending off my story and I wanted to win so bad, because I love my books."
"Neither is looking in the direction they are travelling and I wondered why."
Image 4
Image 4 is an illustration from Molitoris, Ulricus, De lamiis et phitonicis mulieribus (Of witches and diviner women), a medieval printed book created in the late 15th century.
The special commendation from the image 4 entries was "The Chicken Factory Outing" by Richard Bennet.
Read all of the image 4 entries here.
Here are some of the reasons why entrants chose this image:
"Following a recent visit with the Young Archaeologists to the Special Collections Centre, image four inspired me combine details about manuscript production with an imaginative narrative for my story."
"The image chose me; it was the most gripping, and caused an argument between my girlfriend and I as to the nature of the image, which later emerged in my mind as the story I submitted."
"The three demons/witches (including the bird-headed one) clambering on to the pole, suggested (somehow) three women out on the razzle, with the vulnerable one clinging on behind…"
The Sir Duncan Rice Library
University of Aberdeen Bedford Road Aberdeen AB24 3AA Tel: +44 (0)1224 273330 Fax: +44 (0)1224 273956 Email: library@abdn.ac.uk |
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