This year's Liberation-themed Write Stuff book awards have been hosted

The awards centered on the liberation of Guernsey 75 years ago from German forces. Nearly 500 students took part from 17 local schools. ‘We were stunned by the quality of the entries,’ said Tony Booth, one of the organisers of the Write Stuff writing competition, at a special awards ceremony at the Guille Alles Library.

The final judges, Andy Riley, Neil Layton, Onjali Rauf and Huw Lewis-Jones are all successful UK writers and their reports on the entries also mentioned the creative talent of so many young island writers.

The awards were presented by Steve Burt of Write Stuff sponsor Julius Baer. As a book lover and avid reader himself, he said, ‘I am very much in awe of all the young people who have worked so hard to create these stories.

’The range of subjects, from the personal to the political, the historical to the dystopian, was not lost on illustrator Ginny Morgan, who said it was a real pleasure to create artwork to go with each of the class winning stories. At the awards ceremony, the winning stories were read by the young writers themselves or by actor Andy Hislop.

Primary winner Chloe Sebire’s story "A Letter that will Live On" was in the form of an imagined letter. Her grandmother, 96 and now living in South Africa, had made recordings of her memories of the war.

‘That was what gave me the idea. My grandmother inspired me,’ says Chloe. A very different story was that of intermediate winner Rebecca Hind, "Suffragettes – Freedom for Women". In the story, Rebecca imagined a powerful and life changing event through the character of a suffragette.

‘We were studying the suffragettes at school and I found it all very interesting. I thought it fitted in well with the idea of freedom,’ says Rebecca.

In the senior class, winner Naomi Miller turned to a post-apocalyptic setting for her powerful and beautifully written story "A Way to Escape".

‘I wrote this story originally last year and then changed and developed it,’ says Naomi. "The story is about what happens when nature takes revenge and people have to live underground to save themselves from heat".

Naomi, who says that her own reading is more likely to consist of mysteries than the dystopian at the moment, also writes in her story about the importance of the written word. ‘I wanted to bring into the story the power of books,’ she says.

A new class this year, the SEND class for special needs writers, was won by Le Rondin’s Riley Robert, whose exciting story of a motorcycle episode is also a lesson on doing the right thing. Riley, who has more than a passing interest in motorcycles, was able to hear his story "My Bike" performed to great effect by Andy Hislop.

There was a cash prize of £50 and a trophy for the winner in each category, with £25 cash prizes for second and third places. In addition, the three winners in each category were awarded a certificate and had their entries published on the website.

All the winning stories also had an illustration produced of their story by Ginny Morgan, which will serve as a cover on their digital story, and the original artwork was given to the winners as part of their prize.

The WriteStuff website is now live with the winners’ stories, judges’ comments, recordings of their stories, and the illustrations by Ginny Morgan.
https://2020.writestuff.gg

Results:
Primary
1, Chloe Sebire (Year 5 Hautes Capelles) A Letter that will live on.
2, Ruben Nigbur (Year 3 Sark School): Sid’s Island
3, Lily-Ella O’Brien (Year 6 Melrose, Ladies College) Freedom is in the Clouds
Highly Commended, Abigail Catherine Dowinton (Year 4 Home Schooled) A Dancer’s Freedom

Intermediate
1, Rebecca Hind (Year 9 Grammar School) Suffragettes-Freedom to Women
2, Tim Geraint Ap Sion (Year 9 Elizabeth College) Deluded Vision
3, Violet Graham (Year 9 Grammar School) Waves 
Highly Commended, Gabriel Buchanan (Year 7 Elizabeth College) Surf’s Up

Senior
1, Naomi Miller (Grammar School) A Way to Escape
2, Ilan Godet (Elizabeth College) Freedom
3, Rachelle Girard (Grammar School) A Gift of Freedom
Highly Commended, Oliver Connolly (Elizabeth College) Am I really Free?

Le Rondin
1st Prize: Riley Robert (Le Rondin) My Bike
Highly Commended, William Gallie (Le Rondin) The Scottish Astronaut