Books: Meet the writers that impressed Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival judges

Celebrating books and writing in the heart of East Anglia, Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival proved to be the biggest and boldest yet!

Returning for its seventh outing, it featured a four-day programme of author events, creative writing workshops, walks and film screenings.

For the popular Creative Writing Competition, entrants were tasked with responding to the prompt ‘Lost In A Book’ with a piece of fiction or non-fiction prose, poetry, a play, rap or song lyric, which was less than 500 words.

The entries were judged by authors Jill Dawson, Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Serena Patel, who chose six very worthy winners.

This year’s winner of the adult category was Elaine Waterhouse with Inside the Cover. Judge Jill Dawson enthuses: “Elaine demonstrates her skills from the opening line, with arresting phrases such as 'the holes ventilated the knees of his jeans' or 'lollipops' to describe the young man's earbuds. A strong voice drew me in. This brief story is a character study, and an exploration of the profound value of novels (George Eliot's Middlemarch, to be exact) to help us to connect with a stranger, just as the two characters do. A moving, assured and understated story. Our unanimous winner.”

On discovering her win, Elaine says: “I am both surprised and delighted to be selected as the winner, which is truly humbling. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to participate in the competition and this recognition has strengthened my confidence and determination to continue developing my writing. Thank you!”.

The runner-up in the same category was Nicola Walpole with Found in Time. Jill says: “This intriguing story was a worthy runner up. With its fresh and contemporary tone, the writer explored the ways that 'found' stories get pieced together. A scrap, found inside a book in a charity shop, leads a keen storyteller astray. This story playfully demonstrates the joys - and dangers - of research for writers, with economy, humour and a light touch.”

On being chosen as a runner-up, a ‘delighted’ Nicola enthuses: “Having Jill Dawson validate my writing has been a huge boost to my confidence, thank you.”

Both Nicola and Elaine won tickets across various events at Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, including a place on the Gold Dust Creative Writing Workshop Day.

The winners in the Young People categories were Jasmine Wales, with her ‘vivid and poetic’ story The Road To Discovery, and Alexis Rose Josy, a student at St Benedict’s Catholic School, with her ‘warm and nostalgic’ story, My Second Home.

Jasmine, who is home educated, selected to attend the Gold Dust Creative Writing Day as her prize and Alexis Rose won one a free school events with East Anglian award-winning author Dr Ashley Hickson-Lovence set to visit St Benedict’s and give an inspiring whole school assembly on his brilliant novel Wild East and the power of using verse to tell your own story.

Winners in the Children 12 and under categories were Florence Atkinson, with her story Bookworlds: The Portal Between Stories, an adventure story that the judges said they ‘could see becoming a whole series of stories’.

Florence, was at Risby Primary School at the time of writing the piece but has since started in Year 7 at County High School, and so Dr Ashley Hickson-Lovence will also be visiting County High and meeting year 7 students there.

The youngest winner was Oluwadarasimi Huldah Fajuyi, a student in year 6 at Tollgate Primary School, and the only writer to win with a piece of creative non-fiction, Getting Lost In A Book, which the judges said was ‘very thought provoking and interpreted the theme in a really interesting way’. Oluwadarasimi won Tollgate a visit with bestselling author of the Anisha Accidental Detective series, Serena Patel, who will run an interactive assembly around her recent hit novel for young readers, Pia’s Pet Club.

The schools events were funded both Adult Category entrance fees and, this year, by the generous backing of Wensum Trust English Hubs, which is funded by the Department for Education, and supports schools in Suffolk and Norfolk to achieve excellence in teaching reading and early language development.

Find out more about Bury Literature Festival at burylitfest.co.uk