THE last ever Callum Macdonald Memorial Award has been presented to poet and publisher, Leonard McDermid.
At a National Library of Scotland ceremony celebrating the achievements of poetry pamphlet publishing in Scotland, McDermid won the award for his pamphlet Landway.
He was presented with the winning Quaich and a cheque for £1500. He is also eligible for a two-week residency as the Michael Marks Poet in Residence at the Harvard Centre for Hellenic Studies in Greece in July.
The National Library’s general collections manager, Graeme Hawley, was on the judging panel for the awards and said: “The running of this award has coincided with a period of incredible change with regard to publishing and the audience for poetry itself, with many people now hearing poetry performed on the stage rather than reading it on the page.
“But the pamphlet still has the power to arrest and delight, and when text, font, illustration, and subject matter come together equally in a publication, something magical can happen. Landway is an exquisite example of this.”
McDermid established Stichill Marigold Press in 1990, and under this imprint he has written, hand-set, printed and published several unique letterpress pamphlets.
Born in Gravesend in 1933, both McDermid’s father and grandfather worked in the Greenock shipyards.
He studied at Medway College of Art, Brighton College of Art, Newbattle Abbey College, and Edinburgh University and has lived and worked as an artist in the Borders for the past 40 years.
This is the second time McDermid has received the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award, having won in 2010 with And For That Minute.
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