The Young Walter Scott Prize (YWSP), the UK’s only creative writing prize for young people dedicated to historical fiction, is open for entries.
Budding young historical novelists aged between 11 and 19 have until October 31 to enter.
A series of creative writing workshops take place across Britain in June and July. Two are in Edinburgh at Trinity House of Leith on 12 June for 16 to 19-year-olds and one of 11 to 15 year-olds at Craigmillar Castle on June 13.
These sessions have been created specifically to give young people a chance to immerse themselves in historical places.
The two initiatives aim to inspire young writers to play with ideas, to explore the cracks between historical facts and to become the historical novelists of the future.
Judges are looking for a piece of creative writing between 800 and 2,000 words inspired by any aspect of the past. It could be an actual historical event, place or person and it has to be set in a time before the writer was born.
Entries will be judged in two categories, 11 to 15 years and 16 to 19 years.
The winners of each category win a £500 travel grant to enable them to visit the historic site of their choice anywhere in the UK and a VIP invitation to the Borders Book Festival in Melrose in June next year to receive their prizes.
Two runners-up in each category receive a book token and all four winning stories are published in a YWSP anthology book.
The prize was set up two years ago by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and is named after Sir Walter Scott who, as a boy sent to live in the Scottish Borders, set about exploring the countryside and listening to the stories of the people he met there.
This inspired him to write and to later become the most celebrated author of his time.
The workshops will led by writers and experts in interpreting historical places who can help young writers see the past in new ways, and to begin writing or developing their work further.
For full details of workshop bookings and how to enter the prize, please visit the YWSP website
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