By Carole Dennett
Out On An Island is inviting members of the Island’s LGBTQ+ community or those with an Isle of Wight connection to contribute their experiences of life on the Island for a new book to be published later this year.
They are looking for prose, historical themed articles and autobiographical experiences telling the story of what it has meant to be part of this community on the Isle of Wight. What does it mean to you? How have attitudes changed in your experience? You may want to write about your first experience of attending Pride, or any other relevant memories. It could be a ‘coming out’ or a going out story. The organisation wants to share the emotions of those who have experienced being LGBTQ+ on the island. Three hundred and fifty copies of the finished book will be sent, free, to heritage archives and museums.
Writers whose work is selected will receive two copies of the book when it is launched at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival in October 2020. Copyright will remain with the writer, who will give consent to the project to publish material in the book and online. No one else will be able to publish the work without the writer’s permission.
The deadline is 2 June 2020, submissions, which should be no longer than 1,500 words, should be sent to hello@outonanisland.co.uk with the subject line Out On An Island Writing Submission. You can choose to have your submission printed anonymously. Images, photos and visual art to illustrate the writing will also be welcome. If you submit images which identifies anyone other than the writer, written proof of their consent will need to be provided.
Project Manager Caroline Diamond said: “Although we have put our events and face-to-face activities on hold, we are still active on social media and busy planning our exhibition which launches at Quay Arts, Newport on 19 September 2020”.
Franko Figueiredo, Artistic Director for the project added: “We are so excited to hear personal accounts and historical stories – like the tale of Isle of Wight architects and partners Paget and Seely. We can’t promise that we’ll use all of the work we receive, but we’ll do our best!”
The project is also keen to support anyone on the Island who is feeling isolated during the government lockdown. They will be holding online Zoom meetings with anyone who would like to join them. You can contact them at hello@outonanisland.co.uk, on 07786 080203 or follow them on social media @OutOnAnIslandIW.
Out On An Island is a project run by StoneCrabs Theatre Charity and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It has been running for the last 12 months recording the stories of LGBTQ+ people with an Isle of Wight connection from the last 100 years.
(image – Peter Woodnutt by Laura Galton)
