Creative Writing student wins Deddington Short Story Prize

Gwilym Scourfield, currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing, has won the short story prize at the 2010 Deddington Festival. He scooped the £100 cash prize with his story titled ‘Cuckoo’, which he wrote as a part of his postgraduate studies.

The two-thousand word story begins with two brothers who stumble across a dying man while playing on a mountainside. Following his recovery, they question their altruism in what the author describes as a 'Roald Dahl' style twist.

After receiving the prize Gwilym said: “I’ve had my work short-listed before but I have never actually come first. I think this shows that my writing has improved immensely since I started the MA course”.

One of Gwilym’s other stories (“Just three stops, please”) was also included in the ten stories short-listed for the national competition. This was judged by Jane Jakeman, a published writer who lives in Oxford.

Gwilym hopes his recent success will spur him on while he completes his first full length play. Having already had some of his short stories read on BBC Radio Oxford, and some shorter plays performed in the city, his aspiration is to make the transition to a full-length stage production. He hopes it will be performed in Oxford or at Greenham Common, since it commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the anti-nuclear demonstration. 

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 29 Jun 2010 around 7am

Filed Under #Postgraduate