Creative writing celebrated at the Cheshire Prize for Literature
The best creative writing talent in the county has been celebrated at this year’s Cheshire Prize for Literature awards evening.
The Cheshire Prize showcases the literary talents of writers with a connection to the Cheshire area. Now in its 21st year, the awards evening announced the winners in the primary, secondary and adult categories for poetry, short stories, children’s literature and scriptwriting.
More than 450 entries were received with more than 200 guests in attendance at the event in the University’s School of Education building.
The evening started with a talk from guest speaker Paul Dowswell who gave an insight into his writing career. Paul is a prize-winning author and his best-known work is Auslander, described by the Financial Times as ranking ‘among the very best of wartime historical fiction.’ Eight of Paul’s other novels have won or been short-listed for The Historical Association book awards. His most recent book is the non-fiction Aliens – The Chequered History of Britain’s Wartime Refugees.
The winners were:
- Joe Szestak - Primary Poetry – When.....
- Melissa Pei - Primary Short Story - The Day the Puppets Marched
- Belle Hargreaves - Secondary Poetry - The Paper Swan
- Aurora B. E. Blue - Secondary Stories - The Strangers
- Lesley McClaren - Children’s Literature - The Story House
- Peter Evans - Flash Fiction - Get a Grip
- Helen Kay - Adult Poetry - I Think of Sid and John Often
- Donna Brown - Adult Short Story – Her Face is Mine
- John Alexander Fraser – Scriptwriting -The Fates
The winning entries and runners-up will see their work published in the Cheshire Prize for Literature Anthology which will be published by the University of Chester Press later this year.
Dr Harry Parkin, Senior Lecturer in English Language is one of the competition’s judges. He said: “The competition is so hard to judge every year and this year we received over 450 entries which is just astonishing. It is really encouraging to see the enthusiasm displayed by all our entrants. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our guest speaker Paul Dowswell for his insightful talk.”
Next year’s Cheshire Prize for Literature will open for entries in November 2025 Cheshire Prize | University of Chester