BBC Novels That Shaped Our World Writing Competition
This year Derbyshire Libraries received funding to produce a series of library activities and events to celebrate the novel, and the joy of reading in participation of the BBC 'Novels That Shaped Our World' programme, funded by Arts Council England.
We launched a 500 word writing competition on the theme of Isolation. This ran from Monday 1 February 2021 and closed on Wednesday 31 March 2021.
It was open to all residents aged 16 and over who live within the administrative boundaries of Derbyshire County Council.
Entrants had to write up to 500 words, either fiction, memoir or poetry, but all entries had to centre on the theme of isolation.
The winning entries were chosen by our independent judges, celebrated local authors Emma Pass and Anna Stuart.
Anna Stuart commented: "It’s been my absolute pleasure to help judge this wonderful competition. It seems that Derbyshire has some excellent writers and this theme, with its deep resonances in what has been such a hard year, really brought out the best in them. That made my job exceptionally hard but very rewarding and I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the winners, the runners-up and all who entered."
Prize winners
- First Prize of £250 in book tokens: ‘A New Normal’ by C. Burke
- Second Prize of £150 in book tokens: ‘Search: How to Make Friends’ by H. Larder
- Third Prize of £100 in book tokens: ‘Isolation is…’ by B. Crossley
Highly commended entries included:
Over 130 eligible entries were submitted, all of these will be published in a compendium ebook on BorrowBox at the end of May. Congratulations to our winners and to all those that entered!