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PETA launches contest to
find the hottest vegans in the UK and Ireland
THE celebrity world certainly has its
fair share of hot vegans; including:- Ellie Goulding, Natalie Portman, Jessica
Chastain, Jared Leto, David Haye and Joaquin Phoenix; but PETA wants to
recognise all the people in the UK and Ireland who've made the compassionate
choice to stay away from unhealthy meat, eggs and dairy foods. That's why the
group has just launched its 2016 Hottest Vegan UK and Ireland contest, giving
every person who has made the smart decision to go vegan a chance to shine.
In addition to an envy inducing title, the winners; 1 male and 1 female; will
each receive a 1 night stay for 2, at the luxury boutique hotel, La Suite West,
in London, which will include a vegan breakfast as well as a dinner prepared by
renowned Head Chef Nik Heartland at the hotel's plant based restaurant, RAW.
There are many reasons to make the switch to plant based eating: each vegan
saves approximately 100 animals a year from the horrors of the abattoir, and
vegans tend to be fitter than meat eaters. Concern for the planet is also a
factor, as raising animals for food is a leading cause of water consumption and
pollution, land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. More people than ever
are eating vegan; 20% of 18 to 24 year olds choose to ditch animal derived
foods, according to research group Mintel.
"Vegans are, on average, slimmer and healthier and have more energy than their
meat eating peers; plus there's nothing sexier than compassion. Everyone who
enters this contest is already a winner for eating delicious, healthy foods that
didn't harm a hair, feather or fin on an animal's body." says PETA
Director Mimi Bekhechi.
Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Vegans can enter the contest using
this online form. The entry round ends on 29 May 2016. 2 factors will be given
consideration by PETA in its selection of finalists: PETA's assessment of the
enthusiasm demonstrated by each qualified entrant in promoting vegan living and
PETA's assessment of each qualified entrant's attractiveness.
The finalists will be announced by 3 June 2016. Public voting to help PETA
decide whom it will choose as the winners will begin on:- 3 June 2016 and end
on:- 17 June 2016.
3 factors will be given consideration by PETA
in its selection of the 2 winners (1 male and 1 female):-
► The number of
public votes received by each finalist.
► PETA's assessment of the enthusiasm demonstrated by
each finalist in promoting vegan living.
► PETA's assessment of each finalist's attractiveness.
The winners will be notified and announced on:- 21 June 2016.
For more information and to enter the contest, please visit:-
PETA.Org.UK.
Calling all North West politicians - We need
everybody's help!
SAMARITANS are calling on politicians
in the North West to make preventing suicide a priority in the places they
represent.
Samaritans offer a listening service to people who are struggling to cope, and
have found that the mental health and medical help available to those reporting
symptoms of anxiety and depression is inconsistent and can vary between
postcodes.
Samaritans are calling for all politicians, health professionals and agencies to
work together to formulate suicide prevention plans that are targeted at the
most vulnerable people in their areas.
Around a 3rd of local authorities in England currently do not have suicide
preventions plans, yet evidence suggests that they can save lives.
As part of these plans, health professionals collect detailed information about
suicides locally and work in partnership with the police and health
professionals to put into practice the most effective measures to protect and
support.
Samaritans believes suicide is not inevitable
but is preventable and collecting information about suicide, working in
partnership with other agencies will bring down the numbers of people taking
their own lives.
More than 4700 people in England took their own lives in 2014. The suicide rate
in the North West between 2012 and 2014 was 10.3 per 100,000, or 4.6 per 100,000
for women and 16.3 per 100,000 for men.
"We know that the measures recommended in local suicide prevention plans work.
The Government has already highlighted their importance by calling for all local
authorities to put them in place by 2017 in the Mental Health Taskforce report,
published in February. We need to highlight the areas which have been successful
using local plans, and encourage local politicians to champion them. Samaritans
is calling on local politicians to make implementing suicide prevention plans a
priority on this polling day." said Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland. |
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Edge Hill Short Story Prize
2016 short list announced
ORGANISERS of the Edge Hill Short Story
Prize 2016 have unveiled the shortlist for the annual award which this year,
2016, celebrates its 10th Anniversary.
The Edge Hill Prize remains the only UK based award that recognizes excellence
in a published short story collection. This year has seen established names
competing alongside relative newcomers for the £10,000 main prize, a £1,000
Readers' Prize and an additional category worth £500 acknowledging rising
talents on Edge Hill University's own MA Creative Writing course.
Ailsa Cox, Edge Hill Prize founder and Professor of Short Fiction at Edge Hill
University said distilling the long list of 38 talented entries down to 6
finalists was challenging. "This year has seen some of the strongest
submissions in the ten years this award has been running. The 2016 Edge Hill
Prize finalists will join what is truly a roll call of world-class talent,
including Colm Tóibín, Sarah Hall and Kevin Barry. The judges absolutely have
their work cut out for them in choosing this year's winner from a list that
includes prize winning authors alongside rising talent..." she said.
Cathy Galvin, Founder and Director of The Word Factory, the UK's leading
promoter of excellence in short fiction writing and co-host of the Edge Hill
Prize celebration event said she was thrilled to be on this years' panel.
"It's been wonderful to watch the most significant British prize for a
collection of short stories going from strength to strength - and an honour to
be a judge for such a superb, diverse shortlist. This prize recognises great
writing from emerging and established authors alike," Cathy added.
The Edge Hill Prize is awarded annually by Edge Hill University for excellence
in a published single author short story collection. The winner will be
announced on Tuesday, 5 July 2016, at a special celebration co-hosted with The
Word Factory in London. Judges include 2015's winner, Kirsty Gunn; Cathy Galvin,
Founder and Director of The Word Factory; and Edge Hill Creative Writing
Lecturer, Billy Cowan.
Edge Hill Prize 2016 Shortlist:-
► China Miéville - 3 Moments of an Explosion.
China Miéville lives and works in London. He is 3 time winner of the prestigious
Arthur C. Clarke Award and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice. The
City & The City, an existential thriller, was received critical acclaim and drew
comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell and Philip K. Dick. This is his
third collection of short stories.
► Angela Readman - Don't Try This at Home.
Angela Readman's stories have been published in a number of anthologies and
magazines, and have won awards such as the Inkspill Magazine short story
competition and the National Flash Fiction competition. The title story in this
collection was shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Prize in 2012, and she went
on to win the same competition with 'the Keeper of the Jackelopes' in 2013, also
in this collection.
► Jessie Greengrass - An Account of the Decline of the
Great Auk, According to the One Who Saw It.
Jessie Greengrass was born in 1982. She studied philosophy in Cambridge and
London, where she now lives with her partner and child. Jessie is a founder
member of the Brautigan Free Press, and has appeared on London Fields Radio's
Page One talking about the work of Dorothy L Sayers.
► Kate Clanchy - The Not-Dead and the Saved.
Kate Clanchy was born and grew up in Scotland and now lives in Oxford. Her
poetry collections Slattern, Samarkand and Newborn have brought her many
literary awards and an unusually wide audience. She is the author of the much
acclaimed Antigona and Me, and was the 2009 winner of the BBC Short Story Award.
She has also written extensively for Radio 4
► Stuart Evers - Your Father Sends his Love.
Stuart Evers in the author of Ten Stories About Smoking (London Book Award) and
the much acclaimed novel If This is Home. He lives in London with his family.
► Thomas Morris - We Don't Know What We're Doing.
Thomas Morris is from Caerphilly, South Wales. He was educated solely through
the Welsh language until the age of 18. He now lives in Dublin where he is the
editor of The Stinging Fly magazine. |
