Wolverhampton Young Authors' Prize 2024

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“By entering this competition, so many young people who aspire to become writers will now feel empowered to pursue their dreams.”

Mrs Rowley, WGS Head Librarian

Wolverhampton Young Authors' Prize 2024

This year's winners were announced at the Grand Final attended by over 100 finalists from schools across Wolverhampton.

The Wolverhampton Young Authors' Prize which is now in it’s fourth year, drew hundreds of entries from young storytellers in Years 3 - 11  responding to WGS Head Librarian, Mrs Rowley’s, challenge of writing an original short story, no more than 400 words, based around this year’s theme ‘heroes’. The Grand Final was hosted by WGS on Thursday 8th February with special guest, Paul Dowswell. 

Finalists from Highfields School, Codsall High School, St Peter’s Collegiate Academy, Beacon Hill Academy, Blue Coat Academy, Woodthorne Primary School, Christ Church Junior School and Goldthorn Park Primary School were joined by award-winning historical fiction novelist, Paul Dowswell. Paul offered the budding authors creative writing advice and shared extracts from his seven-time award-winning book, Ausländer, before presenting the winners with their personalised trophies. 

The Grand Final also included a range of fun and creative workshops designed to bring the children’s own book characters to life. Mrs Rowley commented,

‘This competition was established to encourage children from across Wolverhampton to develop their own creative writing skills. By entering this competition and having the opportunity to attend a Grand Final with an award-winning author, so many young people who aspire to become writers will now feel empowered to pursue their dreams.’

The winners, selected from three categories, were as follows: 

Years 3, 4 and 5:
Winner - Jayden from Wolverhampton Grammar School
Runner-up - Edward from Christ Church Junior School
Highly Commended - Farah from Woodthorne Primary School

Years 6, 7 and 8
Winner - Karina from Goldthorn Park Primary School
Runner-up - Maya from St Peter's Collegiate Academy 
Runner- up - Jessica from Wolverhampton Grammar School
Highly Commended - Pelumi from Blue Coat Academy 

Years 9, 10 and 11
Winner- Ellie-Mai from Beacon Hill Academy
Highly Commended - Sophie from Codsall Community High School

Paul Dowswell kindly recorded the stories of our winners and runners-up so everyone could enjoy their amazing work.


 


 

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