Perth & Kinross Council’s Libraries and Information Services annual writing competition for children and young people, the 2014 William Soutar Writing Prize, is open for entries until Thursday 27th November 2014.
Following in the footsteps of the highly regarded and well established Soutar Writing Prize for adults, which is now in its 13thyear, the competition alternates between poetry and short stories. This year children and young people aged from 9 -15 can showcase their creative talents and submit a short story, in English or Scots, to compete for a first prize of an I-pad. Second prize is £50 of book tokens with a special prize draw for schools that submit more than 50% of entries from eligible pupils. There are two categories 9-11 and 12-15 with prizes in each category.
The theme this year is Treasure; entrants are challenged to write a story with the word ‘treasure’ in it. Not all treasures involve gold doubloons or shining jewels; sometimes they can be people or a special memory that will always be treasured. Children are invited to pick up a pencil, switch on their imagination and get writing.
The winner will be announced at an event to which all shortlisted writers will be invited. Competition judge Maggi Gibson, who writes poetry and short stories for adults, as well as poetry and novels for children aged 8 – 14, will present the prizes. All winning and a selection of commended and highly commended entries will be published in eBook format and available to borrow from the Libraries and Information Services eBook catalogue.
Entry is free and entry forms, along with copies of the competition rules, are available at all libraries in Perth & Kinross, or can be downloaded from www.pkc.gov.uk/library.
