Saboteur Awards 2021: When are the winners announced?

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported, shared and voted along the way in the Saboteur Awards 2021 so far. It’s been amazing, as always, to see the buzz around the shortlists and I’m delighted to see these artists and organisations getting the support they deserve.

Secondly, what’s happening with the results, I hear you ask?

In an ideal world, we’d be in a swanky room together with shortlists read aloud and winners asked to stand for an acceptance speech. The Saboteur Awards 2019 was my very first year running it, and it’s strange to think that since then it’s had to undergo such radical changes. That said, I live in hope that 2022 will look a little more familiar in terms of how we celebrate this event. For 2021, though, I’m hoping we can have one last try of doing things in a different way… before going back to normal.

After the social media buzz that happened around the votes, Beth (our patient Social Media Manager) and I have gone back and forth on how we might use social media in a similar way to announce the winners. So here’s how it looks:

On Saturday, May 15 we will announce winners, one category at a time, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

3:30pm Best Short Story Collection

3:35pm Best Spoken Word Performer

3:40pm Best Magazine

3:45pm Best Literary Festival

3:50pm Best Novella

3:55pm Best Poetry Pamphlet

4:00pm Best Regular Spoken Word Night

4:05pm Best Spoken Word Show

4:10pm Most Innovative Publisher

4:15pm Best Reviewer of Literature

4:20pm Best Collaborative Work

4:25pm Best Anthology

Each winner will be announced with:

  • An announcement graphic (on Twitter and Facebook, thanks to a little help from our Graphic Designer friends), and
  • A snippet about them and their work

At 4:30pm, all winners will be announced on the Sabotage Reviews website.

The whole point of the Saboteur Awards Festival this year, to me, was to put a spotlight on artists and organisations who had been impacted by the pandemic. That’s why our festival line-up is packed with amazing performers and organisations, lending their time, their words and their talent to digital audiences. So, in the interest of expanding our digital audience further and putting a spotlight on this year’s winners, we’ll be sending out short and snappy interview questions to every winner and welcoming them to a day’s spotlight on the Sabotage Reviews website to showcase their work.

At the minute, the timeline looks a little something like this:

Wednesday, May 26th

Sunday, May 30th

Wednesday, June 2nd

Sunday, June 6th

Wednesday, June 9th

Sunday, June 13th

Wednesday, June 16th

Sunday, June 20th

Wednesday, June 23rd

Sunday, June 27th

Wednesday, June 30th

Sunday, July 4th

The spotlights will take place in the order that winners were announced in on May 15 (the order listed above, that is), but we’re open to moving spotlights or changing dates to suit winners, too, especially if they have upcoming projects that Sabotage may be able to boost.

I know, it’s different. When I joined Sabotage Reviews three years ago, it didn’t occur to me that every year would change shape how it has done. However, the arts is nothing if not a space for experimentation and I’m hoping you can allow a little of that with the awards this year – until we can raise a glass in person again!

Thanks so much for the continued support, one and all, because it means an awful lot. Please do remember that alongside the awards there’s the festival, too, which is packed with completely FREE events. Further information on that can be found here.

For now, take care and stay tuned…

The Sabotage Reviews team!