The Portico Sadie Massey Awards 2024 - Winning entries
Creative Writing
The short story competition continues the theme of a story set in the North of England, past or present or future. These stories can be read by clicking the icons below. Congratulations and thank you to every one who entered our competitions. We hope you continue to enjoy reading and writing!
Winning Entries
Highly commended entries
Book Reviews
Reading, as well as making us better writers, is essential for developing our empathy and our ability to think critically so we can communicate and make sense of the world. A good book is also one of the greatest pleasures in life! Read the outstanding reviews submitted to our competition in 2021. Please click on the icons below to read the reviews.
Winning entries
Highly commended entries
The Manchester City of Literature’s Schools Writing Trail
The Portico Library
Poetry Prize
(A poem about a place)
St Ives café
Chris Campbell
Where scones, jam and cream,
sit proudly on the counter above
today’s catch: sea bream.
The waitress in her overalls–all
white but with a stain,
where chocolate cake and lemon
slice slipped after serving mains.
And beside the café’s tables,
where tourists escape the rain,
is the art of local residents
to show why they remain.
Poetry Judge: Jack Nicholls
Pathways into publishing with the Portico Library 2021