Portico Young Writers’ Prize

2011

Winners

★ Fiction | The Guilty Reflection

Hattie Cooper

Chorlton High School

Teacher: Rachel Hockey

Mentor: Kate Rowan

★ Non-Fiction | Student Fees: More Than Just Money?

Simon James

Sir John Deane’s 6th Form College

Teacher: Sue Harding

Mentor: James Burton

★ Poetry | Friday Night

Michael Hocking

Sir John Deane’s 6th Form College

Teacher: Sue Harding

Mentor: Becca Smith

Runners Up

Fiction ~ Later

Catherine Tarpey

Loreto High School

Teacher: Chantel Noble & Rachel Preston

Mentor: Beau Jackson

Non-Fiction ~ Chorley Pals Remembered

Joseph Smith

Bishops Rawstorne Language College

Teacher: Caroline Lane

Mentor: Karin Hala

Poetry ~ About a Bottle

Jardel Rodrigues

Trinity High School

Teacher: Charlotte Maxwell

Mentor: Carly Hind

Commended

Mohamed Ali (Fiction)
Eleanor Cartmill (Poetry)
Amy Caunce (Fiction)
Jack D’Arcy (Poetry)
Imogen Fox (Fiction)
Rebecca Gray (Non-Fiction)
Eva Holmes (Fiction)
Daniel Hopkins (Fiction)
Aondoyima Ioratim-Uba (Poetry)
Charlotte Maxwell (Poetry)
Kate Paul (Non-Fiction)
Victoria Rushton (Fiction)
Jack Smithies (Poetry)
Melissa Tindall (Fiction)

***

2010 Winners

★ Fiction | Monsters

Lydia Woodward

Sir John Deane’s 6th Form College

Teacher: Sue Harding

Mentor: Kate Sherliker

★ Non-Fiction | Time Travel in Yorkshire

Lucy Stanfield

Bishops Rawstorne Language College

Teacher: Caroline Lane

Mentor: Lucia Cox

★ Poetry | The Globe

Helen Owen

Glossopdale Community College

Teacher: Cathy O’Mullane

Mentor: Lucia Cox

Runners Up

Fiction ~ Seeing is Believing

Emma Anderson

Bramhall High School

Teacher: Joanna Larkin

Mentor: Susan Bennett

Non-Fiction ~ How Judgemental Are You?

Hallie Fletcher

St. Matthews RC High School

Teacher: Heloise Allan

Mentor: Lucinda Burns

Poetry ~ Manchester Airport

Kerry Tamblyn

Altrincham Grammar School

Teacher: Peter Aherne

Mentor: Anstey Spraggan

2010 participating schools:

• Altrincham Grammar School
• Bishops Rawstorne Lang. College
• Bramhall High School
• Cheadle & Marple 6th Form College
• Chorlton High School
• Counthill School
• Glossopdale Community College
• Loreto High School
• The Oasis Academy
• St. Matthew’s RC High School
• Sir John Deane’s 6th Form College
• The Swinton High School
• Trinity High School

Sir John Zochonis very generously sponsored both the Portico Prize for Literature 2010 and the new prize for young writers. When Lynne Allan, Chair of the Book Committee, wrote to him to ask his Charitable Trust for support for both, he promptly replied with a personal letter that pledged his support and sponsorship. He emphasized how important he thought it was to encourage young writers. The Portico Library is fortunate indeed to have the backing of Sir John in its efforts to bring our historic library to the attention of a much wider audience including young people.

We are also fortunate enough to have collaborated with the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University on our competition for Young People. Kaye Tew deserves a special mention as she promoted the 2010 prize as part of her outreach work and offered much sound advice which contributed to it being a resounding success.

The 2010 prize boasted Sherry Ashworth (the current Portico Writer-in-Residence) as judge for the fiction prize for young writers, Rachel Broady judged the non-fiction section of the prize and our poetry judge, Mandy Coe.

We were lucky enough to have the judges help again this year. Sherry, Mandy and Rachel run a workshop for the Mentors and Laureates, and for the 2011 prize Sherry also led a CPD session for all the teachers involved. We held the welcome event and workshop in the Library and they were both a huge success. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the young Portico laureates and their delight at being tutored by professional writers. The laureates are also being mentored by students from the MMU Writing School and there was a wonderful atmosphere as they all talked about their writing interests. The young writers their mentors and the judges have passes to The Portico for the duration of the prize so they can meet during the writing period. Everyone was thrilled that they were going to have the opportunity to sample the delights of The Portico Library - in fact one of the Laureates wrote this article almost immediately!

For the 2011 prize, Mandy and Rachel were joined on the judging panel by Emma Unsworth.

There are many talented young Northern writers out there. One young writer said that she had found the experience ‘life-changing’ which articulated exactly the intended purpose of the competition. Sherry Ashworth said that she felt a ‘deep satisfaction’ every time she thought about how well the competition had gone.

2011 participating schools:

• Bishops Rawstorne Lang. College
• Bramhall High School
• Bury Grammar School [Boys]
• Chorlton High School
• Loreto High School
• The Oasis Academy
• Sir John Deane’s 6th Form College
• Stockport School
• Trinity High School
• Withington Girls’ School
• Xaverian College

Portico Young Writers’ Prize

Sherry Ashworth and Lynne Allan congratulating a winner of the 2010 Prize

Sherry Ashworth and Lydia Woodward, winner of the Fiction category, 2010

To download the information and registration booklet for the Young Prize, please follow this link Portico Young Writers.pdf or contact the Library.

The Young Writers’ Anthology 2010 is available to buy from the Library for just £5.00 each. If you are a teacher or a writing club we are happy to provide you with up to 8 FREE copies for you to use and help champion young creative writers, contact Charlotte for more information.