Thai poet's festival fundraiser

A THAI poet shortlisted for the prestigious Wigtown Poetry Prizes is appealing for funds so she can attend the awards ceremony – and provide care for her elderly parents while she’s away. Molly Thapviwat’s What We Did With The Miner’s Jacket, reflects on family memory and the legacy of industrial struggle. The 33-year-old from Bangkok works as an English teacher and is the carer for her infirm 86-year-old father Amorn and her mother Apamas, 70, who recently had a hip replacement. Molly, whose family lived in the USA for many years and who spent time studying in England, said: “Writing has always been a way of speaking to what feels lost — almost like reaching out to a friend I can’t see but still feel. Poetry lets me give shape to emotions that go beyond what I can explain. “To have this work recognised at Wigtown feels like that lost friend calling back, and being present at the ceremony would be the truest way I could honour that connection.” She added that it would be "the greatest honour" of her career as a writer to be present. So far she has raised several hundred dollars through GoFundMe of the $3500 she needs for the journey and to pay for some professional care for her parents. Though English is Molly’s second language for speaking, it has always been her first for writing. Working mostly late at night, her work has been attracting considerable attention and appears in journals. She is also part way through writing a young adults’ novel. The Wigtown Poetry Prizes are Scotland’s three-language awards, nurturing and promoting work in English, Gaelic and Scots. This year there have been 412 entries, from as far afield as Bulgaria, Finland and New Zealand. The organisers have welcomed the high quality of the entries and encourage shortlisted poets to attend the prizegiving but cannot cover those costs.