Young Writers' Competition 2023

Members of the Rotary Club of Skipton Craven were treated to an evening of literary joy recently when they welcomed some of the finalists of the Club-sponsored Primary School Young Writers’ Competitions, to their weekly meeting, to read out their pieces of work.

Among the 8 attendees was Lilly Robertson, a pupil at Sutton County Primary School, and winner of the inaugural competition in 2020 – for which the theme was ‘The Environment’ -reading her short composition titled ‘Trapped’ - the story of a dream about a crow trapped in her body, how it affected her at school the next day, and the eventual ‘release’ of the crow into the environment.  

The theme, for the 2023 competition was ‘Peace’, for which the judges received 177 entries, and it was no mean feat to reduce this to 8 finalists.

6 members of Rotary trawled through the entries and created a shortlist of winners, with the final 25 being made by Ela Lindley, a creative writing graduate and social media manager.

This year's winner was Summer Jennings (9), a pupil at Lothersdale Primary School.  She won a voucher for £35 and a trophy, which had kindly been donated by Rotarian Paul Wright.

24 other participants received voucher prizes.

Summer was unable to attend the event; nevertheless, her poem ‘Finding my Peace’ was read out by George Garland, the Club’s Young Writer Coordinator.

Runners-up included:

Lydia Swinson (Age?) (School?) - a poem ‘Peace is all things Great!’

Elsie Howe (11) (Cowling County Primary School) – a poem ‘The Peace of Our World!’

Billie Collins (9) (Threshfield County Primary School) – ‘Peace’ – taking us back to 1914, with a story about a rabbit, a German helmet and a mole.

Tessa Bateman (9) (Lothersdale Primary School) – ‘Peace’ – a short poem 

Evie Watson (Age?) (School?)  (Title?)

Fletcher Eyles (9) Gargrave Primary School) – ‘Peace is…’ – a short poem

Preparations are now in hand for the 2024 competition, for which the theme is ‘Rebuilding’

Photo:  Brian Stott

L-R:  Lydia Swinson, Elsie Howe, Billy Collins, Lilly Robertson, Natty Grey, Tessa Bateman, Evie Watson

Download a portfolio of some of the entries