The winners of Shetland Library’s ‘Young Shetland Writer 2021’ competition were announced at the ‘Writer’s Night’ event last Thursday at Wordplay, in Mareel.
With the theme of The Lighthouse, this year’s competition attracted 286 entries from all parts of Shetland.
The winners’ announcement was made as part of Wordplay, Shetland’s Festival of Literature, now in its 20th year, and was judged by local authors and literature enthusiasts James Sinclair, Jim Mainland and Mary Blance.
Winners in the 7 to 9 year old category were Haylee Slater from Skeld school, with the dialect winner going to Christie Tulloch of Aith Junior High School.
Eli Gadsby and Logan Scott were the winners for the 10 to 13 category, with Logan picking up the prize for dialect writing. They were both formerly at Skeld School, but now at Aith Junior High School.
In the 13 to 18 year old category, the winner was Jessie Clubb and the dialect winner was Lauren Grains, both from Brae High School.
The Educational Institute Of Scotland kindly provided £50 prize money for category winners, and local dialect group Shetland ForWirds gifted £50 for the dialect winners.
Chloe Tallack, Young People’s Librarian said “It was a fantastic evening of literature, and great for the young people to have their piece filmed and shown on the big screen at the prize-giving event.”
Some of the winning entries are published on the Shetland Library website; and will appear in The New Shetlander magazine; and read out on the BBC Radio Shetland Book Programme later in the year.