The Martha Mills younger writers’ prize has opened for entries on the theme of “A Secret”.
The competitors, run by the London Overview Bookshop, invitations 11- to 14-year-olds dwelling within the UK to submit as much as 500 phrases of any sort of prose – akin to a fictional story, a chunk of schoolwork, or a diary entry – primarily based on this yr’s theme.
The prize was arrange in reminiscence of the daughter of Merope Mills, editor of the Guardian’s Saturday journal, and Paul Laity, an editor on the London Overview of Books. Martha, who was a eager author, died in 2021 aged 13.
Philip Pullman, creator of the His Darkish Supplies trilogy, joins Mills, Laity and the London Overview Bookshop’s Gayle Lazda on this yr’s judging panel.
“We’re so happy to be launching the second yr of the prize, and much more thrilled to be asserting Philip Pullman as a choose. Like a variety of youngsters her age Martha ripped via the His Darkish Supplies collection, rereading them till the pages got here free,” Mills and Laity stated.
Three winners will every obtain £200 in addition to a choice of books and “a particular memento”. They may also be invited on an expenses-paid journey to a ceremony on the London Overview Bookshop. A choice of entries, together with the three winners, shall be revealed in a pamphlet.
Entrants are inspired to take the theme of “A Secret” in any path. “It could possibly be a narrative of a secret between mates, or a story of spies or detectives. Or you possibly can write a few secret that has affected your personal life, or the life of somebody you already know,” stated prize organisers.
“We’re on the lookout for writing that’s vigorous, uncommon or in any other case unique,” stated the judges. “It doesn’t should be excellent or completed – we wish to see the work that you simply’re most happy with or most enthusiastic about. Don’t fear in the event you haven’t written a lot earlier than or don’t know in the event you’re a ‘author’”.
Final yr’s winners have been Izzy Cooper, Flynn Alexander Hampson and Mabel Swift, whose submissions may be learn within the 2023 pamphlet.
The deadline for entries is nineteen July. Extra particulars on the right way to enter may be discovered on the London Overview Bookshop’s web site.
