The winner of Open the Door 2020’s Digital Slam is Jenny Lester!
Open the Door’s first spoken word event was brought to life by this year’s four shortlisted poets, who have christened our first Digital Slam with the most engaging display of word-skills we could have wished for.
From fantastically elemental women via explorations around mental health to a crescendo-topping celebration of women’s bodies we’ve found joy and tears in the work of these poets. It’s been a true pleasure to celebrate their words.
Our winner Jenny Lester conjured up a city-dwelling fantasy with A Mermaid Returns to the Sea, brought us to our feet with the rallying cry of Ode to the Clitoris, and touched our hearts with the painful, powerful How I Got Over You.
About Jenny Lester
Jenny is a poet, feminist activist, Gaelic learner and D&D player. Her work is informed by her work at a women’s rights charity. She has been previously published by BBC The Social and Lies, Dreaming. She organised a feminist open mic for International Women’s Day 2019 and recently published a zine of her poem Ode to the Clitoris.
Keep up to date with Jenny and her work over on Twitter.
Judging
The Open the Door 2020 Digital Poetry Slam was judged by a panel of three poets. Huge thanks to them for their time and energy judging the digital slams.
Beth Cochrane: Beth graduated with an MSc in Creative Writing (distinction) from the University of Edinburgh in 2015, where she also completed an MA in English Literature, 2014. In 2017 Beth’s spoken word night, co-directed by Ricky Monahan Brown, won the Saboteur Award for Best Regular Spoken Word Night, UK. Beth was awarded a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2018, and she is currently a Trustee on the Board of Directors at Wigtown Book Festival.
Giovanna MacKenna: Giovanna is a poet and writer, and a co-coordinator of this year’s Open the Door festival. Giovanna has previously volunteered her time at GWL, providing content and editorial support for the 2019 festival and other GWL projects. Giovanna has a background in journalism and her prose and poetry has been published in several publications.
Morag Smith: Morag Smith is a writer, poet and National Development Worker for Glasgow Women’s Library. She studied Literature and Sociology in Glasgow then lived in Germany for some years before returning to Scotland where she worked in community learning and development, adult literacies, creative writing and literature development.
