Storytelling Awards

After the event comes the feedback. This year has seen the institution of a new set of awards – the British Awards for Storytelling Excellence, or BASE for short. The 2012 awards have now been given. I’d been shortlisted for a Lifetime Achievement Award but was happy to see it won by Sheila Stewart, the Scottish Traveller singer/storyteller who comes from a dynasty of storytellers and has herself been a storyteller for 60 years.

Among other awards, Graham Langley won the Trailblazer award for his work in founding the Young Storyteller of the Year competition. Ian Stephen and Christine Morrison won the Outstanding Multi Arts Project award for a project in Western Isles schools and Clive Hopwood won the Outstanding Community Project award for his work in prisons where he has helped pioneer the Storybook Dad/Mum project. But on reflection, I realise that no awards at all were specifically for educational work.

What about an award for a Teacher/Storyteller? Or for the most enterprising school storytelling project? Or for someone specialising in Early Years storytelling? BASE is very open to suggestions. This was only their first year. I’ll certainly be putting forward some of these ideas for the future. Storytelling in education is vital. It needs all the support and publicity it can get.

Mary Medlicott is a writer and professional storyteller. She has a Storytelling Blog called Storytelling Starters.