This year, the exhibition in Royal Festival Hall London was curated by Victims of Crime. Last year it was by prisoners themselves and next year it will be Magistrates.
Piebald77 will provide the winners with visual accompaniments to their stories in 2010. This type of representational artistic feedback must be a first of its kind. ~
Only two more stories left to read and comment on for this year's northwest Koestler fiction entries. So far, it's taken about 10 hours to get through them. The short stories range from Risley, Liverpool, Preston, Manchester, and Ashworth hospital, among others. I get the feeling most of them are by younger prisoners and patients. The content ranges from the war in Afghanistan to the more predictable themes of crime, loss, separation, drunkenness and the like. What has genuinely surprised me is how 'downright nice' some of the stories are. Writing for children is obviously very popular in prison, as you can imagine how many fathers are detached from their children.
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The quality is a mixed bag, but nothing is poor or very poor. The good stuff is really good and I am learning tricks myself, which goes to show. It's odd how I have now judged far more pieces of work than I may possibly ever have judged myself! I've only ever received feedback on a couple of my stories, and one judge in particular said that she DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE what was going on! She even underlined CLUE!
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My role is to encourage, and not deter a single person from wanting to fill their time with such a productive activity. I am honest though. Last year I told a guy I thought his writing was too conservative, which I regret. It's not his fault my own stuff is off the radar! Because I write what I want to, I therefore must like what I write, so if someone has a similar style to mine, I tend to like that too, and if someone doesn't, I most probably don't. It's subjective, of course.
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For years I've wondered what people meant by a WRITER'S VOICE. I once got told I didn't have an original voice and it addled my brain. Now I know. It's when one work in particular is screaming at you above the rest.
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So, 2 left to read (luckily, this year's entrants have been mercifully short - not everlasting first chapters of novels in double-sided scrawl like last year), and unless they impress, I have the top 3 places sewn up, and most of the partnering illustrations done (be about 6 in all).
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