The Rhoda Bulter Award Exhibition
Saturday, June 6th 2026 - Sunday, August 16th 2026
Shetland Museum and Archives
The Rhoda Bulter Award celebrates writing in the Shetland dialect and honours the legacy of Rhoda Bulter, one of Shetland’s most influential literary voices. The Award encourages the contemporary use of dialect poetry and prose, supporting the preservation and continued development of Shetland’s distinctive linguistic and cultural heritage.
This year’s competition looked to Rhoda’s skills as an artist and challenged participants to create a wall-hanging inspired by one of four of her dialect poems, and to submit a statement of up to 200 words describing their inspiration.
The four poems were:
- Caald Clods an Tinder
- Da Sloo
- Da Keepsake
- Paets
Eleven entries were received and anonymised by Shetland ForWirds, and then judged by Rhoda’s sons and daughters. The winner was announced as Liam Summers, whose submission was inspired by a verse in “Caald Clods an Tinder”.
Artwork on display from: Liam Summers, Yolanda Bruce, Christine Nicolson, Patricia Kavanagh, Heather Wilson, Valerie C. Ward, Maureen Thomason, Ann Marie Anderson, Sarah Kay, Cilla Robertson, Miriam Moar.
The Rhoda Bulter Award is organised biennially by Shetland ForWirds, which aims to foster and promote the use of written and spoken Shetland dialect as a valued and essential element of Shetland’s distinctive heritage and culture
