Saboteur Spotlight: Best Collaborative Work 2021, Forest moor or less, by Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling

Congratulations on your recent win at the Saboteur Awards Festival 2021! How did you feel when you found out that you’d been shortlisted this year?

A little emotional that people thought so highly of our first joint work together they voted in such numbers to place us alongside such esteemed company in the shortlist. Forest moor or less was a heart work. We have never combined our words in a collection before, although we’ve been together in life and love for 13 years now, so this was a huge deal. We felt the warmth of peoples’ support. They have told us how much they have loved it and how it had helped through a pandemic – but now we really saw it.

Do you feel the pandemic has impacted your work at all; made it harder, or perhaps even easier, to reach people and to promote what you’re doing?

We have answered how it impacted on the company in our Publishers category replies. For us, Dawn Bauling and Ronnie Goodyer as individuals, ‘Forest’ was an escape. It was our place to go, to leave something of ourselves on each page to let others in as welcome guests. One of the many (and there are many!) lovely comments was from a prominent figure in the poetry world: “As someone said, you don’t put yourself into a poem, that is where you find yourself. I feel I found you both between these pages in a beautiful way. Thank you.” That was exact our intention. It struck a chord with a great many people and sales were (and still are) quite astonishing!

Are you working on anything at the moment that you might be able to tell us a little about?

Dawn is working on a pamphlet based on her popular Twitter posts @wavelace.

Dawn & Ronnie are looking towards a joint collection from experiences in France & Greece – ‘Unplanned Margaritas’?

Ronnie is considering a pamphlet of poems about his beloved Dartmoor.

Of course, one of the real shortfalls of not being able to run a live awards show is that people miss out on the opportunity to share an acceptance speech. While you’ve got the platform to, is there anything you’d like to share with readers about your win?

Forest moor or less is a heart work. We have never combined our words before in a collection before, although we’ve been together in life and love for 13 years now, so this was a huge deal. We felt the warmth of peoples’ support. They have told us how much they have loved it and how it had helped through a pandemic, but now we really saw it. It was a special moment when we heard we’d won – Ronnie heard first and came into the lounge bearing two glasses of sparkling wine. I was knitting – I wasn’t for long! This is what your votes achieved for us, holistic beauty and happiness. Thank you.

You can keep up with Ronnie and Dawn on their Twitter accounts: @Poet4theSilent and @wavelace. For now, though, a huge congratulations again to Ronnie and Dawn for winning the award for Best Collaborative Work!

Our next, and final, spotlight will be released on Sunday, July 4th.