The writers of the future

The winners: Jack McEwan, Darcey Fleming, Catherine Solway, Scott Wilson, Sophie Max and judges: Jonathan Douglas (Director of the National Literacy Trust), Michael Morpurgo and Michael McCabe (UK Executive Producer of Wicked): Jonathan Douglas (Director of the National Literacy Trust), Michael Morpurgo and Michael McCabe (UK Executive Producer of Wicked). Photo by Dan Wooller

Young writer Hope Kemp tells us what it meant to her to be shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers Award 2012

Why do you think that it is important for young people to write?

Michael Morpurgo: I suppose it’s a way of confronting the world around them and of trying to make sense of it. That’s what has really come through from the entries this year particularly amongst the teen writing. However, what inspires writers of all ages can be very different. Writing for me is about drinking in the world around me, and feeling passionately about what I am writing about and living and breathing my story.

I would never describe myself as a writer. Writers today are people like Michael Morpurgo, J.K Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, who change the world by writing beautiful stories. But, on 15 November 2012 I received an email saying I had been nominated for the Wicked Young Writers Award. It’s safe to say that I was shocked.

A few months earlier, I had written a 500 word account of my thoughts on leaving school, in an attempt to capture the moment. I hoped that in years to come I would be able to read it and remember everything I had felt. I called it 'Revolutionaries', and on a whim I entered it into the competition. To be shortlisted for the award seemed insane, my short, honest and simplistic account had been read, let alone considered as a winner by such esteemed judges as author and former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo himself, and executive producer of WICKED the musical, Michael McCabe).

Being shortlisted meant that I was invited to attend the Awards Ceremony, held at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (the home of WICKED the musical) on 5 December. I jumped at the chance. My ambition is to pursue a career in artistic direction, and no matter what the result of the award, standing on a West End Stage was too good an opportunity to miss.

On the afternoon of 5 November, I arrived at the Apollo Victoria with my mum and a friend, and I was immediately shocked at how busy the theatre was. I guess I naively thought that the competition was only dedicated for bookish teenagers who also had a penchant for musicals. I was completely and utterly wrong. The theatre was buzzing with a variety of children and teenagers of all ages, surrounded by excited family and friends who had also been invited to join them. 

The ceremony opened with a performance by Hayley Gallivan, a member of the cast of WICKED, who gave a beautiful rendition of the song ‘The Wizard and I.’ We were also treated to a workshop by performance poet Dean Atta, and performances from West-End stars (and personal idols) Louise Dearman and Gina Beck. I was fortunate enough to speak to Louise Dearman afterwards, who congratulated my nomination and wished me luck for my career. WICKED’s executive producer Michael McCabe also gave a speech, stating: 'As a show, Wicked strives to draw upon the thrill of live performance to inspire discussion around its story and themes. It hugely rewarding to see so many young people across the country engage with these values through the Wicked Young Writers’ Award.'

However, it was author and former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo who grabbed attention. His joy and energy for writing was infectious, animatedly stating that 'Great writing touches our hearts, awakens our intellect and leaves us thinking and dreaming. These young people have written extraordinary pieces that do all that. Here are the writers of the future.'

The overall winners of each age category then had their writing read by members of the cast of WICKED, and they were:

• Catherine Solway, age 7 from Dorset
• Darcey Fleming, age 10 from Southport
• Jack McEwan, age 10 from Oxford
• Aiden McConnell, age 13 from London
• Sophie Max, age 14 from London
• Scott Wilson, age 16 from Belfast
• Jon Richardson, age 18 from Nottingham.

Each winner was definitely well-deserved, exploring a variety of themes with tenderness and skill, I felt proud to have even been considered at all in comparison. Afterwards, I got the moment I was waiting for, and took to the stage of the theatre to have my photo taken (I may have got a little carried away and also did the Usain Bolt pose, much to my mother’s embarrassment). Whilst all on stage, Michael said to us 'I could have read any of your entries out and they would have been brilliant. Though you may hate the person who won in your category, don’t for a moment doubt your own writing, you all have a great talent.'

So thank you to Michael Morpurgo, the National Literacy Trust and to WICKED - the award ceremony was inspiring, I would recommend it to anyone. For anyone who does wish to enter next year, here are the words of Michael, who kindly answered some questions I emailed to him: 'Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about – something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.'

Read Hope's shortlisted entry:

Revolutionaries by Hope Kemp

I hope I will remember them all, I really do. I hope that when I tell people all about the surreal things we’ve been through I’ll never put my head in my hands like my Dad does and say 'I’ve forgotten, it’ll come to me soon.' These people have surrounded me for the last five years of my life and I hope I will think of them often, my school classmates, my friends.

It seems fitting that after years of running outside of this classroom as soon as the bell rang, it’s been fifteen minutes and we’re all still here, together. Even the teachers have left us. I know it’s true that I didn’t choose them and they didn’t choose me, we’re all insanely different but I guess I’ve come to like it. Love it actually. There’s no way I could have seen what I’ve seen or done what I’ve done, or even laughed so much without them all.

These four walls have taught me so much: from maths to art, literature to science…But I realise, I have learnt more from my friends than I ever could have imagined. Whether it was Alex, who’d always had trouble with words, silently teaching me to make daisy chains all that time ago. Or Harry, simply teaching me to have patience after watching him care for his disabled mum. I hope they both go far, they deserve it.

Yearbooks are handed out and hysterics fill the room: 'everyone, look at Sophie’s hair' and 'I can’t believe I ever wore that!' Looking back, it’s amazing to see how much we’ve all grown and changed, we’ve still got so far to go. Kaleidoscopes of crazy colours, fashions and smiles fill the photos; I know everyone says it, but we really are the best generation. We always will be.

I realise the inevitability of it all: Anna, the girl who everybody has always known was going to make it has just learnt she’s on her first steps to becoming a doctor; Lizzie, who’d battled with her emotions in the last year is belting out eighties power ballads with the other girls, she’s taking a year out and then returning to her studies. I’m sure she’ll do fine. And Henry, the boy whose life was flipped tumultuously upside down by developing a condition which affected us all, miraculously passed all of his exams. When he found out he stage dived in the assembly, even the toughest of us united to hold him up, I don’t think I could ever forget that moment.

I wish I could go forward twenty years and see where everyone will end up, am I surrounded by millionaires or revolutionaries? I guess I know that some of us will have fallen off broken paths, but right now we’re a force, infinite, electrifying. I’ve never felt younger. If anyone could see us now they’d say we are crazy, and that’s what we are, crazy, dumb and reckless. But we’re so much more than that…