Rhoda Bulter Award winner 2016

This year’s Rhoda Bulter Award, for a short story entitled Boannie Blue, has been won by  Lauraine Peterson, formerly of Tingwall, who now lives in Spinningdale in the Highlands.   

The competition is judged by the Bulter family, who present the prize in memory of their mother, one of Shetland’s most popular and significant writers. Boannie Blue was the title of one of her poems.  John Bulter said the family were delighted with the response to this year’s competition: 'We commend the authors for their creativity and storytelling. The quality of the entries made judging a real joy. The styles and topics of “boannie blue” were so varied: fairy stories and love stories; whales, boats, survival, death, faith and new life. We were taken on terrific journeys.

'The dialect content was especially interesting and suggested stories had been submitted from all over Shetland. As previously, we each judged entries anonymously, then pooled our conclusions. We are all extremely pleased about the winning story, which we felt was well constructed and inspired wide ranging emotions. Huge congratulations to the winning author and our sincere thanks to all contributors.'

Lauraine Peterson was thrilled to learn her story had won. She said 'I was really gobsmacked when I got the news.  Something aboot da “boannie blue” just sparked my imagination.  I have always admired Rhoda’s writing. She could paint pictures with her words'.'

Lauraine’s story will be published in the Yule New Shetlander.