The East Neuk Literary Festival encourages young authors with its first story writing competition
This year, the East Neuk Literary Festival ventured into a new initiative by launching a creative writing competition for primary school children in the local area. The festival is best known for Conversations on the Coast, an annual event which brings Scottish authors into conversation with the community in a series of live events each November. The new children’s story writing competition, hosted for the first time in June 2023, extends the festival’s contribution to the literary arts in Fife and encourages young authors to play with the art of storytelling.
This year’s competition required children to submit a story of no more than 500 words, guided by the theme "By The Sea." Two participating primary schools played host to special assemblies, where children were introduced to the competition and this year’s theme.
As the June deadline approached, the judges were flooded with a “sea” of stories, showcasing the talent and creativity of the entrants. The competition, aligned with the Curriculum for Excellence, was divided into four levels to ensure that each child had the opportunity to shine according to their grade. Entries were judged anonymously by external educationalists, and winners were selected from each level.
The winners were presented with a book voucher and each participating school received book vouchers for the school libraries. The competition was launched by the performance poet and former primary school teacher, Simon Lamb, who also presented the prizes on November 20th at Colinsburgh Town Hall.
This year’s competition gave East Neuk children the chance to unleash their creativity and laid the foundation for future editions of the festival. We are keen on expanding the reach of the story writing competition in coming years, involving more schools and providing a platform for this new generation of young writers to share their unique voices, perspectives, and experiences with the world.
Thank you to the schools who took part this year and, of course, to all the inspirational children who submitted their stories!