The Martha Mills Young Writers’ Prize: the Winners!
Posted by the Bookshop
We are delighted to have had more than a thousand entries in the first year of the prize. The young writers showed immense talent – sparks of literary imagination were flying everywhere, and the idea of ‘The Stranger’ given a wonderful variety of interpretations. In the end we looked for both originality of treatment and writing flair, though that still left us with hundreds of entries to choose from. We salute the three winners, and the runners-up also due to be published in the prize pamphlet, and are proud to have encountered so many writers who so clearly share Martha’s talent.
Our three winners, who will each receive £200 and a selection of books, are Izzy Cooper, Flynn Alexander Hampson and Mabel Swift. Congratulations to all three!
Our runners-up, whose stories will appear in the prize pamphlet alongside the winners, are Nicholas Bailey, Christabel Fletcher, Martha Gibbins, Anastasis Henningham, Hugo Hodson, Grace Osei-Wusu, Akeisha Pancho, Magdalena Pietravalle, Aadam Qureshi, Leo Smith and Theo Berrisford Sweet.
‘It was hugely pleasurable to read all the entries for the prize. We were transported by chases down dark alleyways, aliens, amnesia, quite a bit of violence and some really nasty parents. There was plenty of “stranger danger” but also welcome and sophisticated reminders of our obligations to people unknown to us, and different.’
We’ll be contacting the winners, and all other entrants, via email this week.
