Youth Incorporated Magazine

The University of East Anglia, one of the UK’s top 15 Universities, today announced a creative writing competition for 11^th standard students in 100 schools across 10 cities in India. This is the first-ever competition of such a nature to be held in India that will reward winners with a special summer school course to hone their writing skills.

This competition follows from the resounding success of the Creative Writing India Workshop led by Amit Chaudhari, award-winning author and UEA Professor of Contemporary Literature, in Calcutta, in August 2017.

Participating students have a choice of topics from Politics, Climate Change, Media Studies, Economics, International Development, and Creative Writing. Students have to write a creative piece in the form of poetry, blog, short story, news article or a diary entry of 800 to 1200 words on any one of the given topics in the competition.

The first winners of the contest will receive a certificate of participation and a cash prize of INR 18,000, along with an all-expense paid trip to the 2019 UEA International Summer School in Norwich and up to a 20 per cent scholarship if applying to a UEA course in future.

The winning student’s school will also be awarded complimentary place at UEA’s Teachers & Advisory Conference in June 2019 and will have the opportunity to take part in an academic workshop, delivered by a world-leading academic. Students securing 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th place will also be rewarded with a cash prize of INR 18,000 and a 20 per cent subsidised scholarship if they apply for a UEA course in future.

Karen Blackney, Director of UEA International said “There is great interest for our international creative writing competitions among Indian students. We know that Indian students are avid readers and a growing proportion of them are budding writers. The success of Indian authors has also encouraged a great interest among students to look at writing as a career choice. UEA has a strong tradition of producing world acclaimed writers and this competition is a small step in expanding the horizons for India’s potential writers.”

The University of East Anglia has pioneered the teaching of Creative Writing in the UK and was the first institution to offer an MA Creative Writing in 1970. The faculty comprises of well-known authors and critics, and alumni include internationally renowned writers Ian McEwan and Amit Chaudhuri. UEA also boasts several Booker Prize winners and just last year UEA alumnus, Kazuo Ishiguro, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Creative Writing competition will be organized for a month beginning 30^thAugust 2018 till 30^thSeptember 2018.