Sangschaw 2026

Our annual writing competition, the Sangschaw, is open for submissions until the 31st of January! As ever, we will provide feedback for every entry regardless of whether or not you win an award. It’s unusual for competitions like us to provide feedback on entries, but we think it’s important to help writers develop. We have three prizes:

• The Robert McLellan Prize for Scots Prose: up to 3000 words of original Scots prose.
• The John MacPhail Law Prize for Translation: up to 3000 words or 80 lines of original translation into Scots from another language. Provide along with a copy of the original text.
• The Hugh MacDiarmaid Tassie for Poetry: up to 80 lines of original Scots poetry.

Writers new and old are all welcome, so don’t hold back! We look forward to having your entries!

You can enter for £5 for one category, £10 for two or £12 for all three, whether that’s all in the same category or spread across the three. You can submit either by email or by post.

Submitting by email

If you would like to submit by email, first pay by bank transfer to the following account. Remember, it’s £5 for one submission or £12 for three.

Account name

Scots Language Society

Account number

00153458

Sort code

83 47 00

Then, send your entries to lallans@hotmail.co.uk along with proof of payment. For example, you could send a picture of your bank statement, or a copy of the transaction reference.

Submitting by post

If you would rather submit by post, send your entries with cash or cheque, as well as your name and address on a separate sheet of paper, to the following address:

Remember, it’s £5 per submission or £12 for three. Address any cheque to the Scots Language Society.