7th April 2014
The second annual Hunter Davies Award for Young Writers competition is now open for any student aged 16-21 who attends a Cumbrian school, college or university. The winning entry will receive £1,000 – half to go to the student’s library and the other half to the winning young person. They’ll also get the chance to have their entry published in Cumbria Life magazine.
This year, the title of the writing will be ‘My Best Friend’ and should be written as a profile of the best friend or an interview.
“Yes, it’s a corny title” said Hunter “but that’s the point. It’s slightly ironic, leaving it open to the student to make of it what he or she wants although it does need to be a piece of non-fiction writing like a reportage or journalism than a school essay. It can be personal, in the first or third person, amusing, informative and descriptive, with observations and opinions, with or without quotes and dialogue. The best friend can be anyone, old or young, dead or alive and could even be a pet.
“The main purpose is to encourage writing skills – which after all everyone needs in life these days for work and for pleasure, now that we all seem to spend most of our time in some of sort communication.”
The judges are Steve Matthews, author, publisher and owner of Bookends and Bookcase in Carlisle, Cumbria Life Editor Richard Eccles and headed by Hunter Davies.
Hannah Sowerby, 17 from Appleby Grammer School won the inaugural prize last year. She said “I was I overjoyed to hear I won and it brightened up my days of endless IT coursework! I would recommend any student to enter. The money helped with driving lessons and the school library was able to purchase some new books.”
The competition is organised by Cumbria Community Foundation. For further information contact Annalee Holliday on 01900 825760 or click here to access the submission form, which has full details of the rules. The deadline for entries is 1st July 2014.
Annalee Holliday, Grants and Donor Services Officer said “This is the second year of the competition and we’re delighted to be working with Hunter again. The prize will provide an incentive for a number of young aspiring writers to get creative and shine a light on their writing skills”