‘I was terrified (but) I am 80, I don’t say no to anything’

THESE very cool grannies show that you're never too old to try something new.

Wendy Taylor of Suffolk Park who competed in Gran Slam in 2019.

GRAN SLAM is back for 2020 and is on the look out for seniors who have a passion for the written and spoken word.

Gran Slam is a poetry competition which had inaugural performance at last year's Byron Writers Festival but is going online in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Wendy Taylor, from Suffolk Park, was a competitor in the 2019 iteration and said the challenge pushed her out of her comfort zone.

"I was terrified because I'd never written poetry … I was a bit nervous but I said 'listen, I am 80, I don't say no to anything anymore, at my age you don't want to miss anything," Ms Taylor said.

"It was fun, I enjoyed it so much … it was good fun and it was really great to push yourself to do something new and find out that you could do it."

 

Robbie Wesley, from Murwillumbah, who competed in the 2019 Gran Slam

 

Robbie Wesley from Murwillumbah also competed in 2019 and said it was amazing to be taught by an experienced literary performer.

"I found last year was very pleasant and supportive and the person who was running it David Stavanger, he was just lovely the way he encouraged everybody, even people that hadn't written poetry before … it was a very, very good experience last year."

The event sees seniors introduced to poetry and how to create it by experienced poets over four fortnightly workshops which will be held online this year.

Ms Taylor encouraged anyone who was eligible to give it a go.

"It just builds up your esteem … if you can do this, it just gives you the confidence to do so much more."

To register, visit the Feros Care website and follow the Gran Slam 2020 prompts.