Search Begins for Next Star of Northern Writing

8/19/2011 10:08 AM EST

The book has been reopened on a tale of literary success for the North East, as the Northern Star writing competition has been launched for another year.
The competition, which aims to find the best writers of children’s fiction in the region, is now accepting entries and inviting children and adults from the North East to get creative and show the rest of the UK what they can do.
The competition was first launched in 2010 in collaboration with the Northern Children’s Book Festival (NCBF). It challenges aspiring authors from the North East to put pen to paper for the chance to see their very own children’s story fully illustrated, printed and sitting on the shelves of bookstores across the country.
Janice Hall, Chair of NCBF, said: “We have so much undiscovered writing talent in the North East, so this is a wonderful way to encourage more people to get involved with reading and writing.
“Last year we were blown away by the quality of the entries and we had a pair of fantastic winners who are now returning to the festival this year as published authors. Everyone at NCBF and the library services are very excited to see what the people of the North East come up with this time around.”
Wannabe wordsmiths must submit a 1,000 taster of their prospective masterpiece online at www.ncbf.co.uk/northernstar along with an outline of the plot. A shortlist is chosen by judges from library services, from which a winner will be selected by visitors to the NCBF Gala Weekend on 19th-20th November.
This year amateur writers of any age are welcome to get involved, as an additional under-12 category has been introduced. Entries can be about any subject, as long as they are suitable for children.
Out of a shortlist selected by the library services of North East councils last year, visitors to the NCBF Gala Day chose Sara Fellows’ Oscar the Cat and Peter Keane’s Standing Stone as joint winners of the prize.