Young Shetland Writer 2022 winners announced

Some of the winners of the Young Shetland Writer 2022 competition, whose awards were presented at Mareel on Wednesday evening. From left: Tom Lobban, Maria Robertson, Trudi Balfour, Cora Grant and Tamzin Doull” Photo: Dale Smith/Shetland Arts

The winners of Shetland Library’s Young Shetland Writer competition were announced at Mareel as part of Wordplay, Shetland’s Festival of Literature.

With the theme of “Time Traveller,” this year’s competition attracted 414 entries from all parts of the isles.

The competition was judged by authors and literature enthusiasts James Sinclair, Jim Mainland, Sally Huband and Mary Blance, with the winners’ announcement made at the Celebration of Shetland Writers event.

Winners in the 7 to 9 year-old category were Anne-Louise Harpé of Bell’s Brae Primary School, with the dialect winner going to Cora Grant, from Lerwick, who entered individually.

The winners in the 10 to 12 age category were Tom Lobban from Gulberwick and Tamzin Doull from Aith Junior High School. Tom entered in the competition individually and won the dialect writing category.

In the 13 to 18 year-old category, the winner was Trudi Balfour and the dialect winner was Maria Robertson, both from Brae High school.

The Educational Institute of Scotland provided £50 prize money for category winners, and local dialect group Shetland ForWirds gifted £50 for the dialect winners.
Shetland Library’s young people’s librarian Chloe Tallack said: “The writing quality of this year’s entries was exceptional, and the judges had a tough job to read through all the entries then choose the winners.

“It is always encouraging to see the support given by families and educators to the young people developing their creative writing.”

Some of the winning entries will be published on the Shetland Library website. as well as in The New Shetlander magazine.

They could also be read out on The Book Programme on BBC Radio Shetland later in the year.