Winners of the Cheshire Prize for Literature announced

The winners of this year’s Cheshire Prize for Literature have been announced at a celebration event at the University’s Queen’s Park site. 

The special guest at the awards evening was Ruth Estevez, writer and University of Chester alumna, who also took part in a question-and-answer session with the audience about her writing career facilitated by Cheshire Prize judge and Senior Lecturer in English Language, Dr Harry Parkin, in the Brasserie in Churchill House. 

For this year’s competition there was no set theme. Primary and secondary age children could submit a short story or a poem. Adults were able to submit an entry in the categories of children’s literature, short stories, poems or scriptwriting. 

Entrants must live or have lived, work or have worked, study or have studied in Cheshire (including Wirral, Warrington and Halton) and could enter a maximum of two categories but only one entry in each category. 

The winners were announced by Dr Harry Parkin and Martin Matthews, a secondary school teacher from Cheshire, who announced the winners of the secondary school age prizes.

The winners were: 

• Poetry Primary (ages four to 11): Ilsa Kelly – In the Forest of Fear
• Short story Primary: Jack Waring – The Golden Brooch
• Poetry Secondary (ages 11 to 18): Erin Molyneux – Two Lives, Two Christmases                                                                           
• Short Story Secondary: Joseph Cannon – A Cold Night’s Work                                                                                        
• Adult Children’s Literature: Carol Howard – Delilah the Dragon                                                                                            
• Adult Poetry: Jack Haworth – We Taught Dog be Dog, and Dog Taught us Be
• Adult Short Story: Eve Naden – The Logbook of Platform 10                                                                                                                        
• Scriptwriting: Jeremy Fletcher – Shallow   

The adult winners were each presented with a prize of £200 with a £50 book token for the winners of the four children’s categories.

The Cheshire Prize for Literature was founded in 2003 by the then High Sheriff, John Richards OBE DL, and Dr Bill Hughes from the University of Chester. It is open to people with a connection to the historic Cheshire boundary (including Wirral). It is one of the few free-to-enter literary competitions and offers a cash prize for the winners (vouchers for under 18’s) but also the rare opportunity for the best entries from the previous year to be published professionally by the University of Chester Press in an anthology edited by a senior member of academic staff.

Traditionally operating on a triennial cycle of short stories, poetry and children’s literature, in 2019 a new category for scriptwriting was introduced. The University was delighted to form a partnership with Storyhouse, which forms such an important new part of the cultural offering in Cheshire.

Dr Harry Parkin said: “The standard of entries was so high this year that it was a real challenge to pick the winners. We are constantly surprised and impressed with the imaginations and talents of the writers who enter that it makes the judging process such a joy.

“We’d also like to thank Ruth Estevez for taking the time from her busy schedule to join us at the University and inspire the audience with her experiences of establishing a writing career.”