Liverpool Literary Festival short story competition winners announced

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The University of Liverpool, in partnership with Liverpool ONE, is delighted to announce the winners of the annual Liverpool Literary Festival short story competition.

The Liverpool Literary Festival (Friday 4th to 6th October) is a well-established fixture in the city’s vibrant cultural calendar. Liverpool ONE is now working with the University of Liverpool to give budding writers the chance to share their work at the heart of the city.

Selected by a panel including the Liverpool Literary Festival Director, Professor Greg Lynall, and Colm Toibin Lecturer in Creative Writing, Dr Danny O’Connor, all entrants have written a short story of no longer than 1,500 words on the theme ‘turning.’ This explores the concept of change and transformation in our lives through storytelling.

On Sunday 6 October at 11am, the winners and runners up of the writing competition will read extracts from their work at an exclusive event at the Liverpool Literary Festival.

The winners are:

  • University of Liverpool staff winner: Michael Holloway (Library Services)

  • University of Liverpool postgraduate student winner: Eleanor McAdam (English)

  • University of Liverpool undergraduate student winner: Caitlin Mercer (English)

The runners up are:

  • University of Liverpool staff runner up: Laura Brough (ULMS)

  • University of Liverpool postgraduate student runner up: Holly Dempster-Edwards (LCF)

  • University of Liverpool undergraduate student runner up: Ava Williams (English)

Winners in the undergraduate and postgraduate categories will receive an £100 Liverpool ONE voucher and runners up in these categories will receive a £50 voucher. Both winners and runners up in all categories will also have their work published in an online Liverpool Literary Festival anthology.

Award winning and best-selling author Naomi Wood will present the writers with their prizes. She will talk about her own short story collection, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, at the Festival on Sunday 6 October at 12.30pm.

This year the competition was also open to schools across the region. The winners of the schools’ competition will be announced later this year.

News of the competition will be posted across Liverpool ONE for all to see.

Festival Director and Head of English at the University of Liverpool, Professor Greg Lynall said: “‘Turning’ wasn’t an easy topic for the writers to get to grips with, but the panel were incredibly impressed by the way the writers used the brief to produce their stories.

“I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to enter and of course, a big thank you to Liverpool ONE for kindly sponsoring the competition and providing the prizes. It’s great to see stories from university staff and students in the city.”

Donna Howitt, Place Strategy Director at Liverpool ONE, said: "We’re extremely proud to support the Liverpool Literary Festival. Supporting communities and bringing art and culture closer to our visitors is at the heart of what we do at Liverpool ONE.

“We are very pleased with the involvement of local schools in the writing competition, which helps to showcase incredible writing talent on our doorsteps. We hope the upcoming display of the extracts of the winners’ work will spark the curiosity of our visitors and encourage more people to get into writing.”

Taking place at the heart of the University of Liverpool’s campus, the Liverpool Literary Festival is now in its 9th year.  The 2024 festival line-up includes something for everyone from best-selling author, Adele Parks, to local poet Levi Tafari.

Professor Greg Lynall added: “As well as the writing competition, the Literary Festival has a fantastic line up this year. With just a few weeks to go until the Festival starts and lots of the events already proving very popular, make sure you have a look at the programme and get your tickets booked.”

The Liverpool Literary Festival takes place between October 4-6 in the Eleanor Rathbone Building on the University of Liverpool campus (106 on the campus map). To find out more, view the full line-up and reserve your tickets, please visit https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/literary-festival/events/