GAWP!
Green Alphabet Writing Prize
Winners announced for FlipSide Festival’s writing competition
In its debut year, FlipSide’s environmentally-themed writing competition, the Green Alphabet Writing Prize (GAWP), drew a large number of entries from locations as far as Europe, the US and Australia.
The competition was judged by leading authors Jackie Kay, the Scots Makar (poet laureate), Blake Morrison, writer and Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College and Jon Canter, Suffolk-based novelist and playwright.
At an event at the FlipSide Festival at Snape Maltings on Saturday October 7th, Jackie Kay announced the winners and presented the winners with their cash prizes: £500 for the adult winner and £250 for the Under 16 winner.
The adult category was won by Grace Blackwood with ‘S for Survival’, a post-apocalyptic instruction manual for regenerating the world’s flora. Second prize was awarded to T.J. Marshall-Nichols for ‘Queuing at Yoshinogawa’ and third prize to Diane Jackman for ‘The Naming of Flowers’.
Grace Blackwood writes short stories in between working for a children's literacy charity and bringing up three sons. She has had work performed at the Liar's League and published in the London Journal of Fiction. She lives in South London but spends as much time as possible on small Scottish islands.
In the Under-16s category, the winner was Dhylan Patel for ‘The X Animal Museum’. Second prize was awarded to ‘Ice Caps’ by Iona Mandal and third prize to ‘The Tale of the Carrot Tree’ by Amelie Meek.
Writers were asked to submit fiction, non-fiction or poetry with a green theme and to take just one letter of the alphabet as their starting point. GAWP was run in conjunction with Friends of the Earth.
Over-16s Shortlist (alphabetically):
Paul Batty: Q Gardens (prose)
Grace Blackwood: S for Survival (prose)
Keith Brunton: N is for Nursery Rhymes (poem)
John Hambley: One Letter (poem)
Diane Jackman: The Naming of Flowers (poem)
T.J. Marshall-Nichols: Queuing at Yoshinogawa (prose)
Sue Ryder-Richardson: A is for Amber (prose)
Carinya Sharples: V is for Value (prose)
Francisca Staines: Forty Minutes Each Way (prose)
Helen Storey: A New Leaf (poem)
Under 16s (alphabetically)
Charri Jain: The Tree with Sepia Leaves (poem)
Iona Mandel: Ice Caps (poem)
Amelie Meek: The Tale of the Carrot Tree (prose)
Dhylan Patel: The X Animal Museum (poem)
Elsa Voak: Vulture (prose)