Blog North Awards –Reviewed by Joanna Byrne
Arriving early for the first ever ‘Blog North Awards’, I couldn’t help but feel slightly thrown by my surroundings. Like most students, the Deaf Institute for me is a place I usually visit much later on in a night, and normally when I’m not in a condition to fully appreciate the setting. At 7.30pm on a Wednesday evening however, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the understated style of the upstairs room, which, although cosy, is designed to seat a fair number of people. The atmosphere was really warm and it wasn’t long until I found myself in a conversation with a young man about events we had been to at the festival this year. It was interesting to notice the huge variety of those attending, from the hippyish, bespectacled characters which one might archetypally associate with blogging, to the refined, older gentlemen sporting cravats. On arrival, you could immediately appreciate the real diversity present in blog writing today.
After the traditional thanks-giving by the compere, the event began with blog readings from some of the short-listers. The eclectic display of talent was kicked off by Amy Roberts, whose work focuses on the ‘horror of everyday life’, and in this instance, the horror of working in a certain fascist clothes store which shall remain unnamed. Her piece focused on the comedic stand point one must take when faced with the depravity of existence. Next up was possibly my favourite part of the evening: Kevin Boniface, a postman from Huddersfield, reading from his online “diary”. Mixing the banal with the insane, Kevin recounted tales from his daily post round using rudimentary, sometimes crude, and yet always beautiful vocabulary. I think what stuck out more however, was his performance – his nervousness and obvious introversion were appealing to the audience and only led to a higher appreciation of the humour of his work, and of everyday life. Then came Simon Moore’s reading from his blog ‘Sonnet Reviews’. His work aims to review contemporary culture, and most often television, through the medium of sonnets. I was struck with admiration that he had not only accomplished this demanding task, but that he had done so with such success. Lastly was perhaps the most unusual reading of the night from Lee Grant, accompanied on stage by a young couple and their baby. Lee told the story of Francis, a teenager from a troubled background who he had been following as she had grown up. In his blog he had documented the first year of Mia’s life, a child Francis had had at the age of 16. He managed to convey the story in a very touching and caring manner, despite the constant interruptions from a restless Mia!
After a short interval we heard from the ‘star guest’: novelist Adam Christopher. At first I was slightly perplexed by the inclusion of a novelist in what seemed to be a night celebrating blogging. After his reading however, taken from his science fiction novel Seven Wonders, it was made clear that Christopher had used blogging as the first outlet for his work. The following question and answer session allowed the previously dry compere to really come into her own. Through her questioning we were able to learn that Christopher owed his career to social media, having been part of a strong literary community on Twitter, even finding his eventual publisher there! I found it fairly dispiriting that the acceleration of his career did not seem to have much to do with his blogging; instead it seemed more due to the connections he had made on Twitter.
The night was finished off, of course, by the Blog Awards! The cheers of support for each nominee really expressed the solid community of writers to be found online. The winners were announced and I was surprised to see that the young guy I’d spoken with earlier in the evening won the prize for Best Young Writer. I decided not to stick around for the schmoozing after and instead made a speedy exit. Sitting on the bus taking me back home I contemplated blogging and how useful it really is for writers. Although more popular than ever, many people still see it as a waste of time – time which could be better spent on writing to be published. My mind went back to my favourite moment of the night: seeing Kevin Boniface’s ‘the Most Difficult Thing Ever’ win the prize for Best Writing. I wondered whether, had he not started a blog, but simply carried on with his private diary, anyone would know what a talented writer he was. I arrived home with a new perspective – that blogging is a platform through which people can display their work and without it, useful or not, a lot of the talent out there today would still be very much hidden.