The 2016 Denver International Spirits Competition Took Place on March 12-13, 2016. March 13, 2017 Dear Entrants, The Denver International Spirits Competition took place on March 4 & 5, 2017. This year’s entries represented a 70% increase over 2016. Our team has been working diligently to finalize all scores and to create our 2017 winners list.

We know that many entrants are anxious to learn if they have one a medal. We cannot provide individual results until the entire complete list of winners has been finalized. Based on recent progress we anticipate that winners will be announced on Wednesday March 15, 2017. Thank you for your patience and support! The Denver International Spirits Competition 2016 Denver International Spirits Competition Contest Winners BEST OF SHOW (TIE) WINNERS: 1st Place Dewars Signature Scotch Whisky-John Dewar & Sons 1st Place Long Road Aquavit-Long Road Distillers ​ 2016 Denver International Spirit Competition-­ Design Packaging Contest BEST OF SHOW DESIGN WINNER: 1st Place Gold Bar Whiskey, San Francisco, CA ​ or call 303 664-5700.

In October we at last had the great joy of welcoming our three winning writers of the 25th International Radio Playwriting Competition to London. Joanne Gutknecht (Canada) and Pericles Silveira (Brazil) were exceptionally busy: attending a workshop with two of our leading radio writers, Lin Coghlan and Sebastian Baczkiewicz, receiving their awards at a prize giving ceremony at the Commonwealth Foundation, taking a trip to see one of the West End's most popular productions and still managing to find time to record both their winning plays in our Drama studio in Broadcasting House!

Jude Erupu (Uganda) who won this year's Georgi Markov Prize for the most promising script was also here for two weeks at the BBC. It was an absolute pleasure to have them with us and a wonderful way to round off what has been a fantastic and record-breaking competition, with over 1,000 entries from 112 different countries. Many thanks to our partners at the British Council, Commonwealth Writers and the Open University who've supported the competition.

Nayara’s father wants her to see her grandmother’s house after the dam disaster in Bento Rodrigues. But why has he stolen a bus to take her there – and why do things keep disappearing? About me: When I was little, I used to walk around the house holding a tape recorder and a mic in which I narrated stories about inanimate objects: the adventures of the alarm clock that had to cross my parents’ bed to get to the window, or the phone that had to walk beneath the chairs in the living room. I built labyrinths with rows of string that went around all the door knobs in the house: a complex network of traps that the robots I’d built with paperclips and erasers could cross. At that moment my parents usually appeared: 'Oh my God what's going on here?!' But I was quite insistent. I continued to tell stories.

That’s what I still do today. This is my first play for radio. In a remote house in rural Canada, passions rage like the encroaching wildfire in the marriage of Judy and Arnold.

Scandal and infidelity threaten to tear them apart, and their disturbed son Daniel can’t stop playing with his dolls. How will they escape the imminent flame? About me: Joanne was raised in a small rural community in Manitoba, Canada.

Joanne developed an early interest in writing short stories and poetry. She excelled at writing in school, but preferred to follow other interests professionally. However the lure of creative writing has always remained strong. Joanne is involved in various charities and is passionate about human rights issues.

She currently works as a Contracts Officer and travels in the Canadian Arctic, supporting Inuit businesses. She resides in Winnipeg, Canada. This is her first play. Having lost his father to the Lord Resistant Army after a brutal attack on his village, Chadwong must make a decision.

Should he join the Arrow boys like his best friend Apukun, and fight to avenge his father? How will he care for his pregnant mother and siblings? Unable to reach the food aid his family so desperately needs, circumstances conspire to lead him on a desperate path in order to survive in this lawless, unjust world. My name is Erupu Jude. I was born in Kaberamaido district in the North-Eastern Uganda Region - the third born of my mother and the thirteenth born of my father.

I started writing in Senior one, but I gave it up since there was no one to read my works or even encourage me. I used to read inspirational books and novels like Gulliver’s Travels, Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, Things Fall Apart, Children et cetera.

I loved how strong-willed characters like Okonkwo or Tom Sawyer jumped from their fictional stasis to reality. And then I had an experience of my own in 2002. I was a student in Lira Integrated when the woes of Lords Resistant Army rebels began. I participated in eluding capture several times by the rebels in Lira. This led to my transfer to Teso College Aloet in 2003 where I again evaded abduction by the LRA rebels. I witnessed starvation in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) Camps, rapes, shame, theft, poisonings and murders as people died before their time – at least many never reached their prime.

It is here that I saw the grim face of the world smile with mockery and heartlessness – then a fire stirred inside, not of revenge, but hope – hope to turn the sad face of my world from sadness to joyfulness. If I could not lift a machete or pull a trigger, then I could at least shoot ink on paper and tell my tale and of those who are not here with me today. Now I know their voices will be heard. This is a start – a story in their honour.

International Whisky Competition 2016

Thanks to BBC World Service and British Council that in 2016 some of these voices have been heard. English as a 1st Language Singapore Got Cardenio, Geraldine Song (Singapore) Dreamboat, Kirsten Miller (South Africa) Coastland of Hope, Divine Mbutoh (Cameroon) An Ancient Fairy Tale of Istar and her Brother Asar, Thomas D. Praino (USA) The Betwixt and the Between, Gerald Thompson (USA) Daughter of a Brave Country, Kim Velk (USA) Lawrenceville, Derek T.

Bell (USA) Drummer 41, Ish Klein (USA) Swine Song, Ron Harris (USA) Apostles, Robert Fothergill (Canada) The Patron Saints, Ken Jarowowski (USA) Shoujodan: The Song Of The Scouts, Caitlin Alicia Cieri (USA) If That Looking Glass Gets Broke, Jill Talbot (Canada) Phoney, Brian O’Beirne (USA) Midnight or Clear Blue Sky, Frederick Johnson (Barbados) Foreign Temple, Sam Patrick (Barbados) EDGE, S. Sheppard (Bahamas) Goodbye Mr Black, Darion O. (clockwise from top left) Ria Parry, Ray Fearon, Sabrina Mahfouz, Steve Titherington, Marion Nancarrow, Neil Webb Ria Parry Ria Parry is Co-Director of The North Wall in Oxford. She is a director and producer and has created work for venues including The Bush Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, Regents Park Open Air Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre.

She was the recipient of the Leverhulme Award for Emerging Directors at the National Theatre becoming Resident Director at the NT Studio in 2009. Ray Fearon After graduating from drama school, Ray garnered a reputation as a stage actor with the RSC and in the West End, becoming the first Black actor to play “Othello” on an RSC stage in over 40 years and later becoming an RSC Associate Artist. His other notable theatre credits include playing Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar (RSC), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (RSC) directed by Michael Attenborough, the title role in ‘Pericles’ (RSC), ‘Macbeth’ at Manchester Festival, “The Soldier’s Fortune” at the Young Vic, and “Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads” at the National Theatre. Ray’s film credits include the blockbuster Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone, Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and starring in Oskar Roehlar’s Lulu and Jimmi. His extensive television credits include BBC One’s Silk, Waking the Dead and Death In Paradise and ITV1’s Prime Suspect.

Sabrina Mahfouz Sabrina Mahfouz’s numerous plays have won multiple international awards and she is currently writing a biopic of Wiley, the ‘godfather of grime’, for Pulse Films, as well as operas, digital dramas and a novel. With a Little Bit of Luck, performed at the Roundhouse main space, was the first radio drama on BBC Radio 1xtra. Sabrina also writes for children and her play Zeraffa Giraffa won a 2018 Off West End Award. Her poetry collection, How You Might Know Me, was a 2017 Guardian Best Summer Reads. Sabrina is the editor of The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write, a 2017 Guardian Book of the Year and is an essay contributor to The Good Immigrant, exploring her mixed racial heritage through British fashion.

Steve Titherington Steve Titherington is Senior Commissioning Editor at the BBC World Service leading editorial projects and creating new programme formats, podcasts and partnerships. New shows include The Assassination; Trending, the Food Chain and The Inquiry – and BBC MINUTE. He has also been Executive Editor of Global News, Deputy Head of WS News Programmes and Head of the World Service Newsroom, where he led coverage of 9-ll and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has led teams covering major news events in the USA, Russia and China and has reported from around the world from Haiti to Hong Kong. Neil Webb Neil has been Director of the Theatre and Dance team at the British Council since 2012 and is responsible for leading and delivering a performing arts programme across the British Council's global network. He leads on their partnership with Unlimited, the UK’s commissioning programme for disability arts.

International Wedding Cake Competition 2016

He is on the programming panel for the Made in Scotland showcase, chairs the panel for the biennial Edinburgh Showcase and sits on the Advisory Committee for the IETM International network for contemporary performing arts. He was previously Regional Arts Director for East Asia, trained in ballet and contemporary dance and is a 2006/7 Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme. Marion Nancarrow Marion Nancarrow has directed more than 250 dramas for the BBC, many of them for the BBC World Drama strand, which she ran for 11 years, working with writers and performers across the world. With the British Council, she has run drama workshops in Ghana, South Africa, Malawi and the Middle East and the first 2nd language Radio Writing Residency.

Awards include Sony Gold and Silver, CRE Race in the Media and a New York Festival Medal. She is immensely proud to be involved with the International Playwriting Competition.