Winners of short story competition announced
The winners of the Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning Short Story Competition have been announced.
The winners are Mark Newman for the adult competition and Josie Thornton for the junior competition and on Monday 2 February Mark and Josie attended a presentation at the University to receive their well-deserved prize cheques and certificates of achievement.
They were also presented with copies of the competition Anthology in which their winning entries have been published.
Mark’s story, entitled A Man, Out Walking was described by judges as being 'touching and sophisticated storytelling, with compelling use of conditional tenses. The kind of subtle, emotive story you just sit back and read uncritically', while they asserted Josie's story, Pick One, was 'remarkably assured fiction from a young competitor with a strong voice, and a good sense of prose rhythm. Well-written, strange and original, with effective present tense narration. A great read'.
The competition generated a lot of interest with writers from across the Leicester region submitting their stories for consideration.
The contest was set up by David Wharton, Course Director for the Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing at the Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning, who wanted to provide an opportunity for unpublished writers in the Leicester area to showcase their talents and reach a wider audience. He said: “I'm delighted with the response we received to year one of the Vaughan Centre Lifelong Learning Short Story Competition. The winning stories are impressive pieces of fiction by talented writers, and the entries as a whole prove there's a great deal of creative potential in our region. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what next year's competition brings.”
The Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning is now taking applications for their next intake of the part-time Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing and further details can be found by visiting the course webpage.