 |
| Anne with the winning writers |
On Saturday 7th May I attended a small gathering at the Earlsfield Library in Wandsworth.
Six young writers had been shortlisted by librarians from Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth in the National Young Crime Writers’ Competition run for the second year by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA).
The six shortlisted authors (in alphabetical order) were:-
Veronica Chow
Danny Culhane-Rodulfo
Claudia Hyde
Hassainah Khodabocus
Chloe Poulter
Belle Whitehead
The nationwide event organised by the CWA invited writers aged up to 18 to submit 1000 words of crime fiction.
The stories I read were terrific and made me think, for the first time, how effective this short ‘crime’ format is. A bite size narrative that doesn’t take long to read but leaves a shiver at the back of the neck for a long time afterwards.
CLAUDIA HYDE won with her story A CUSHION OUT OF PLACE.
This story will go through to the national final, which will be judged by senior CWA members. The national winner will be announced during National Crime Writing Week which runs from 13th-19th June.
Claudia Hyde’s story will be published on CRIME CENTRAL soon.
The National Young Crime Writers' Competition is a great idea and seems to be really taking off. It's promoted by enthusiastic librarians and they're doing a brilliant job in inspiring young people to write - another example of something local libraries are doing really well. I did a writing workshop around the theme of crime at Kingswood Library in South Gloucestershire earlier this year, aiming to encourage entries to the comp and I was so impressed with the young people and the library staff.(Good luck to Emily Lumbard who won our regional prize!)
ReplyDeleteRachel - we're going to post Claudia's story this week on Crime Central. Is there any way of getting other regional winners' stories to post as well?
ReplyDelete