Island Fantasies

YOUNG J K Rowlings and Dan Browns have been gathering in Manchester ahead of a junior version of the Man Booker prize.

Promising fiction writers were the guests of MMU’s prestigious Writing School which is piloting a junior format of the famous prize, won this year by Kiran Desai for the magical The Inheritance of Loss.

The Man Booker ‘Junior’ is open to 16-18 year-olds in the short story category.

Piloting the contest are writers from schools in the UK’s ‘island communities’ – Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Shetland, Orkney and elsewhere.

Winner

Writers are selected on talent by their schools and a pilot winner will be announced in October.

Kay Tew, senior lecturer in English at the Writing School said: "As part of the competitition, the youngsters are supported by professional writers, so they have been here at MMU (July 5-6) working with published writers like Nicholas Royle and Dinesh Allirajah.

"Some of the talent is breathtaking and amazingly mature for people so young.

"The judges will be looking for that creative spark, a different voice, someone with something to say and with a different way of seeing things!"

ACWE

MMU was selected to run the pilot by Man Booker for its outstanding work with schools and colleges through the Association of Creative Writing and English.

The ACWE All Write competition last year ended with a 15-year-old from Burnage having a novel published. It regularly publishes young writers through a magazine, Muse.

"We are committed to bringing in professional writers to inspire young talent and make youngsters think about a career in writing," added Kay.

Man Booker will decide later this year whether to go ahead with a full-blown junior version of the world-famous prize.