As we write, the mood of the nation seems to be slightly lifting: the announcement that a first batch of vaccines will be ready for rollout next week suggests some cautious optimism for the months to come. I have been in touch with a few groups to reschedule residential writing retreats which have been long delayed.. These have been difficult months for everyone, from small businesses like ours to university students.

As the year 2020 comes to an end we have decided to close on a high: we are establishing the Chapelgarth Writing Retreats Awards to recognise the incredible challenges that all PhD students have faced this year.  As our residential writing retreats were on hold, most of our contacts with PhD students were online, thanks to the virtual writing retreats that we ran between the beginning of lockdown 1 and the end of lockdown 2.  I was able to make new connections and to familiarise myself with some of the many challenges that PhD students were encountering. I was particularly struck by the case of Miriam Liggins, who overcame what seemed to be like insurmountable challenges which had been thrown up by the pandemic. I was inspired by her example and decided to set up three awards for women PhD students: the STRENGTH, RESILIENCE AND RESOURCEFULNESS AWARDS.

I decided that Miriam should be the deserving recipient of the first award (STRENGTH in a Pandemic), which we delivered on a very small Zoom ceremony attended by all my family!

We are now looking forward to receiving nominations for two further awards:

RESILIENCE in a Pandemic AWARD

RESOURCEFULNESS in a Pandemic AWARD

For more details see the CALL FOR NOMINATIONS HERE