I had a fantastic time at the BBC Short Story and Young Writers' Awards on Tuesday and I'm thrilled to share the winner of the Young Writers' Award.
17-year-old Davina Bacon wins
2018 BBC Young Writers’ Award
with ‘compassionate’, ‘intelligent’ and ‘surprising’ story about
elephant poaching
Davina Bacon
from Cambridgeshire has won the 2018 BBC Young
Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University (YWA) for ‘Under a Deep Blue Sky’, a raw and
emotionally powerful short story about a young African poacher and the brutal
murder of a mother and baby elephant. Inspired by her early life living in
Africa and her passion for the environment, Davina’s story was praised by author
and judge William Sutcliffe as a ‘superlative piece of writing by any measure, regardless of the age of
the writer’
and by fellow judge and actress Carrie
Hope Fletcher, for its ‘compassion
and intelligence’.
Citing
Michael Morpurgo as an influence on
her writing style and having recently read a lot of post-colonial literature
including Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart and Anthills of the Savannah,
Davina Bacon’s winning story is inspired by her earlier years spent living in
Malawi. She says: “My story is based on
Kasunga National Park where they have issues with poachers crossing the border
from Zambia to kill elephants. The population has decreased rapidly and this is
very worrying.”
The news was announced live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row (Tuesday 2 October) with ‘Under a Deep Blue Sky’ available to read and listen to
on the Radio 1 website after the award ceremony, read by Don Gilet of the BBC
Radio Drama Company. An interview with Davina will be available on the Life Hacks podcast from 5pm on
Wednesday 3 October. Davina will also receive a personalised mentoring session with an author
to enhance and further develop her writing skills.
Carrie
Hope Fletcher, writer, actress and BBC YWA 2018 judge says:
“‘Under A Deep Blue Sky’ is one of the most surprising pieces I read
during this competition. It was the only story to tackle the issue of poaching
and wildlife and showcased the compassion and intelligence of a younger
generation.”
Mónica
Parle, Executive Director, First Story, says:
“From the first word on the page, Davina Bacon’s story will grip you and
envelope you. It’s astonishing to witness such a command of language,
description and place in such a short space of time, and I am struck by how
powerfully she expresses personal grief and loss through a connection with the
natural world. This is a young voice to watch, and we at First Story are
delighted to see Davina gain wide readership through this award, which is at
the forefront of discovering new, fresh talent.”
William Sutcliffe, adult and YA author and
BBC YWA 2018 Judge says:
“The
winning story is a superlative piece of writing by any measure, regardless of
the age of the writer. The characterisation, setting and narrative are richly
and intelligently put together. Every sentence is polished. To fit a story of
this power and depth into a mere thousand words is a serious achievement.
Davina deserves to be very proud of her work. I look forward to seeing what she
writes next.”
Davina
beat off competition from Reyah Martin,
18, from Glasgow for her
evocative and profoundly moving story of a mother’s grief, ‘Footprints in the Far Field’; Lottie
Mills, 16, from Hertfordshire
for ‘Unspoken’, a compelling and
lingering story about the fragility of teenage mental health and a family in
denial; Jane Mitchell, 16, from Dorset for ‘Firsts’, a beautifully structured story of displacement told
through the voice of a refugee mother seeking a better life for her daughter
and Tabitha Rubens, 16, from Islington, London whose deeply poetic ‘Oh Sister Invisible’ tells a story of
courage, grief and helplessness as the narrator watches her sister disappear as
anorexia takes hold.
All
five shortlisted writers spent the day of the award ceremony at Cambridge
University where they met Young Writers’ Award judge and fifth laureate na nÓg (Ireland's
laureate for children's literature) Sarah Crossan for a
writing workshop in Cambridge University Library. They were also given a private tour
of ‘Virginia
Woolf: An exhibition inspired by her writings’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum before
attending the award ceremony where Trinidadian writer Ingrid Persaud, was announced as the winner of the thirteenth BBC National Short Story Award with
Cambridge University for her story, ‘The
Sweet Sop’.
Dr
Sarah Dillon, Faculty of English, Cambridge University, says:
“Congratulations to Davina Bacon on winning the 2018 BBC Young Writers'
Award with First Story and Cambridge University. To capture in just 1000 words
a character's present, past, and perilous future is a feat for any writer, let
alone one 17 years of age. Stories like this show just how powerful this form
can be - hitting you hard and fast, haunting you for long after.”
This is
the fourth year of the BBC Young
Writers’ Award which invites 14 – 18 year
olds to submit stories of up to 1000 words. The award was launched as part of
the tenth anniversary celebrations of the BBC National Short Story Award and
aims to inspire and encourage the next generation of writers.
The shortlisted stories can
be read and listened to online at: www.bbc.co.uk/ywa
