For this year’s Calm Slam, we asked you to take inspiration from the work or history of this year’s Open the Door festival’s three historic writer/artists: Wendy Wood, Zarina Hashmi and Edith Simon. We were overwhelmed and moved by the creative, thoughtful and inspiring entries we received.
The winner of Calm Slam 2021 is Lucy Buchanan with her poem Granny!
“Granny” is inspired by Edith Simon. Huge congratulations Lucy! This is a stunning poem that impressed and moved our judges – you can watch Lucy’s fantastic poem here:
Lucy’s Bio:
I am a teenager in my final months of high school with a keen interest in creative writing. I love to write poetry and am still trying to find my voice and what I want to say. I am inspired by the themes of gender, identity and nature as well as writers such as Margaret Atwood and Sylvia Plath.
Thank you to everyone who entered our Calm Slam!
Thank you to our judges Courtney Stoddart, Nadine Aisha Jassat and Giovanna MacKenna.
Courtney Stoddart is a poet and performer from and based in Scotland. Her work centres around challenging the dominant power structures of our times. As of 2021, she was announced as an Ignite Fellow with the Scottish Book Trust. instagram.com/amapoetica/
Nadine Aisha Jassat works part time as a National Lifelong Development Worker for Glasgow Women’s Library. She is an award-winning writer, and author of the poetry collection Let Me Tell You This, and has performed her work internationally. www.nadineaishaj.com
Giovanna MacKenna is a poet who writes about the difficult things which fill all our lives, but are rarely spoken aloud. She is currently working with The Museum of Loss and Renewal Publishing on her first full collection. www.giovannamackenna.com
You can watch all the finalist’s poems on our Vimeo channel here.
Find out more about this year’s Calm Slam.
Open The Door Calm Slam Workshop
Wednesday 14th April, 2pm to 3.30pm
In this poetry workshop, short writing exercises will act as a prompt for exploring your own creativity and freeing your imagination. This workshop is facilitated by Jane Yeh from The Open University, and is open to both beginners and more experienced writers. You might even generate ideas or work to enter into our Calm Slam competition!
Book your free place online here.