About three or so years ago whilst I was shivering to my bones in the freezing office of a mock Egyptian tardis in Holbeck, Leeds I picked up the phone to Kate Feld, the woman behind the Manchester Blog Awards. I rang her with the intent of learning all her blogging secrets so that I could steal them for The Culture Vulture.
From the start my plan was flawed as I discovered to my annoyance that Kate is this really warm woman who I immediately clicked with, and more importantly instills the notion that being in a community and helping foster a culture of mutual support was what it was all about. So my plans to run off with the blueprint for blog world domination were foiled. Yet, in my usually over ambitious way, I recall saying ‘We’d love to do what you’ve done in Manchester but here in Leeds’.
What I loved most about the blogging community in Manchester at that point, was just how generous the scene seemed to be, everybody linked to each others blogs, and supported each other. From my outsider’s perspective it felt they subscribed to this idea that Manchester was made up of all their voices. So the seed was sown; why shouldn’t we try and be part of developing the culture of blogging here in Leeds and Yorkshire?
So Wednesday night at the inaugural Blog North Awards as I listened Len Grant, author of the very moving Her First Year, I looked across to Kate and couldn’t help but feel proud that we were part of this great friendly community in the North of England. It was also significant in the week when we’ve celebrated passing the milestone of 2012 blog posts in less than 4 years. In that time we’ve debated the meaning of what a blog is and what makes a good one at length on here and it continues to occupy certain people more than others – some (you know who you are, don’t pretend you don’t read us secretly) have the cheek to suggest that blogs are poor quality and pointless pixels. Not everybody mind, Darren ‘Bones’ Murphy picked up on a recent conversation with our ‘editor’ or ‘barfly’ Phil Kirby about the value of art criticism and blogging, saying ‘the blogger is becoming the voice and the critic is becoming the curator’ (and what of the curator? I think they’re becoming really irritated!)
What seems evident to those of us who blog, tweet, and meet in real life, is that we are playing our parts in an ongoing conversation. Some of us may wish to derive an income, or sustain our time spent writing and creating, but mostly we enjoy the creativity and sometimes quite intimate relationship with our readers – some might say too close at times. Speaking of the devil, Phil himself isn’t too keen on the word blog, but as usual the white picket is stuck firmly up my posterior.
So I thank everybody who has ever blogged for us, or commented, or discussed over a coffee a post that made them think, or annoyed, or dare I say it, bored? It’s been great getting to know Kate better and a fantastic accolade to be considered to be part of the Blog North network (which also includes the the one and only Susie Stubbs of Creative Tourist)
Yorkshire was really well represented last night in Manchester and I’m especially chuffed that Eleanor Snare who writes The Magic Square Foundation and Ewan Jamieson of A Negative Narrative who both won awards, have also been valued contributors to The Culture Vulture. As has the really highly considered Adam Batty of cinema blog Hope Lies which came a close runner up to Ewan. I also enjoyed meeting the delightful Leeds based Considerate Trespassing who was named joint winner in the Best Young Category. This blog is a personal favourite of mine, as will become clear when you see the stories he tells with his camera and his nerve
What I love though is that we are connected to some very very fine people, doing stuff for pleasure and passion, with some small self inflicted pain (mostly) across the North. The formidable 7 Street’s and Creative Tourist’s both did a brilliant round up of the awards, and in reality I’ve written this because I don’t want to be left out!
What will next year hold? Which blogs are you reading right now? What’s next? You tell us join the conversation
The winners and runners up of the Blog North Awards
Best Arts and Culture Blog
The winner: A Negative Narrative
The runner up: Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second
Best City or Neighbourhood Blog
The Winner: Sevenstreets
The runner up: Unicycle Emptiness
Best Food and Drink Blog
The winner: Around the World in Eighty Bakes
The runner up: Squidbeak
Best Personal Blog
The winner: Her First Year
The runner up: A Different View
Best Specialist Blog
The winner: The Magic Square Foundation
The runner up: Fontilan
Best Writing
The winner: The Most Difficult Thing Ever
The runner up: Tiffers At: Otherwise I’ll Forget
Best Young Blogger
The winner is: A tie between Considerate Trespassing and Every Second Song
The runner up: Celluloid Wickerman
Click here to view the full shortlist for 2012.
The Blog North Awards will return in 2013 – watch this space!
Thank you Emma for a great evening at the first Blog North Awards. It was a great setting and a cheerful, friendly inclusive event. We were delighted to be runners up in the food awards – well not as delighted as if we’d won, but we’ll cope and we’ll be back next year with a bigger and better blog to woo the judges. There were some great blogs. our favourite was ‘The Most Difficult Thing Ever’ and we were pleased that Considerate Trespassing won too. A great evening, and if you did, thanks for voting for us. Mandy’s has blogged about it here: http://www.squidbeak.co.uk/2012/10/blog-north-awards/