Gory story gets the glory!

A group of Hastings’ best and brightest young writers recently lent their budding expertise to judge a series of crime stories written by their adult contemporaries. The Hastings Young Writers group sent this report.

The Hastings Young Writers have announced the winner of their competition, “Crime writing for 12-year-olds”, which they set for adult members of Hastings Writers Group. The young writers judged each story out of ten on its age appropriateness and interest.

The winning story was Vicky Armstrong’s “The Needle Man”, a sinister tale about a criminal hiding needles in fruit and veg. The second prize went to
a story about a retired assassin (“In Plain Sight” by Neil Carter),
followed by one involving an alligator hidden in a bathtub (“Better the
Devil” by Marcia Woolf).

The Young Writers are a group of young people, aged 11-17, who meet
fortnightly to write stories and discuss projects and competitions. They
also host talks by adult writers and their patron is the novelist Kate
O’Hearn, author of the Pegasus series.

Liz Caluori, who set up Hastings Young Writers, said: “I’m very grateful
to all those who took the time and effort to enter the competition. The
adult group are giving us lots of support to host a range of interesting
workshops, and we look forward to more collaboration with them in the
future.”

For more information about the group, contact:
membership@hastingsyoungwriters.co.uk

Also in: Young People