Bournemouth student wins £1000 Young Writer prize
Primary page content
Young Writer winner Valerija Savicka joined Rachel Cusk, this year's winner of the Goldsmiths Prize, at an awards ceremony in London.
Valerija Savicka and Rachel Cusk at the Goldsmiths Prize 2024
The Young Writer competition, run by Goldsmiths, University of London, aims to find the next generation of writing talent. With a £1,000 prize at stake the competition is open to young people between the ages of 16 to 18 studying at school or college.
Valerija, aged 17, from The Bishop of Winchester Academy in Bournemouth, admitted that she did not expect to be shortlisted for the prize, let alone to win:
“I couldn't even believe it, it was like a dream, and I think I even began to cry from how happy I was.”
“I entered the competition thinking that it would be just a nice opportunity to practise writing skills and nothing much. Especially because I didn't think my English was good enough for serious writing as I came to live in England only 4 years ago.”
The Young Writer competition judges had a different view though.
This inventive, formally daring story is experimental in the truest sense, tackling questions about humanity and the natural world through an unassuming yet philosophical non-human lens.
Dr Livia Franchini, Creative Writing Lecturer and judge
The Young Writer competition was held alongside the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize. Now in its 12th year, the £10,000 prize celebrates fiction that breaks the mould and extends the possibilities of the novel. Rachel Cusk was awarded the prize for her novel ‘Parade’.
Valerija attended the prize ceremony for the Goldsmiths Prize 2024 in London and was photographed with winning novelist Rachel Cusk.