The Portico Sadie Massey Awards
Established in 2015, The Portico Sadie Massey Awards (PSMAwards) is an annual short story and book review competition which aims to encourage a life-long love of reading and writing in young people from all backgrounds. The PSMAwards serve schools across Greater Manchester by delivering workshops led by some of Manchester’s most respected ambassadors of children’s and young adult’s writing, with a particular emphasis on exploring stories based in the North of England. Participants develop essential skills in communication, creativity and critical thinking while working towards submitting entries to our competitions every March. There is a selection of prizes including mentorships, book bundles, gift tokens and more.
Competition 1: What’s your story?
Write a story about a person living in the North of England.
Conditions of entry:
· Make sure it’s clear that your story is based somewhere in the North of England.
· The setting should be an important part of your story.
· The person you write about can be imaginary, real, from the past, or it could even be you!
· You can write fact, fiction, or a mixture of both.
· Open to students in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4. Winners are awarded in each Key Stage.
· The maximum word count for Key Stage 2 is 800 words, for Key Stage 3 it is 1000 words, and for Key Stage 4 it is 1,500 words.
· Individuality and creativity are encouraged.
Don’t skip the small print! Read all the rules before you decide to enter.
Let the stories in these posters inspire you to write your own!
click on a poster to download and share
Competition 2: Review a Book
Write a review of a book of your choice and tell us why we should read it too.
Conditions of entry:
· Choose any type of book you want - it’s up to you! Make sure the entire book is read and reviewed as a whole.
· Open to students in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4. Winners are awarded in each Key Stage.
· The word count for Key Stage 2 should be 300 words and for all other Key Stages, 500 words.
· Write your review in your own words and from your own point of view.
· Multiple entries from a school on the same book will be accepted but individuality helps you stand out!
Don’t skip the small print! Read all the rules before you decide to enter.
Need some inspiration? Watch these videos for writing tips from local authors.
Marie Basting on writing characters
Jack Nicholls on writing imagery
Martin Griffin on how to write dialogue
Marie Basting on re-writing and editing
An introduction to The Portico Library with Martin Griffin
Reece Williams on how to write voice
Martin Griffin on how to structure your writing
What’s your story? Watch the videos below to discover these authors’ writing journeys and places of inspiration.
Marie Basting on her journey as a working class author and the inspiration she finds in the landscape of the Lake District.
Jack Nicholls on his surreal stand-up comedy and writing stories about every-day life on a street in South Manchester.
Reece Williams on writing as a teenager and finding inspiration in the multi-cultural communities of Moss Side.
Martin Griffin on how a writing competition helped him become an author, and finding inspiration in ex-industrial spaces.
Book shop
Are you still deciding what book you want to review for our competition? We’re building a list of great titles you might like to investigate. Follow this link. Buying a book through The Portico means supporting an independent library and charity and our proceeds go back into providing public events and activities. Plus, we’re providing a 10% discount on books for young people.
Prizes
Everyone entering the competition this year will receive a gift pack, including a pencil, bookmark and notebook.
Every school that enters receives a copy of 100 Great Black Britons. We are delighted to support the GoFundMe campaign which aims to send this book to every school.
Winners will receive writing mentorships with our team of amazing Northern authors and educators, as well as books and gift bundles.
We are also proud to be partnering with The Writing Squad, who will provide winners in the Key Stage 4 category with further mentoring, plus workshops and 1-2-1 support.
Praise for The Writing Squad:
"Having no formal creative writing qualifications, The Writing Squad gave me my first opportunity to take myself seriously as a writer. In the six months I've been a part of the squad I've produced more work, and to a higher quality, than in the 21 years beforehand.” Riley Bramley-Dymond, Film Maker
Don’t skip the small print!
Make sure you read the rules before you decide to enter.
Submit your entry
click here to download an entry form
The information you share with us will not go any further. We will use it to process the entries and collect data that can help us promote the awards to new audiences. All the information will be held in accordance with data protection guidelines. Entries are judged anonymously.
Can we help? E-mail us here.
Watch a film to see inside The Portico Library! Click on the image.
The film below was made a few years ago and tells you about the awards…
