Tower and Town, September 2020 (view the full edition)Love Books CompeititionTo mark its tenth year, the LitFest wanted to establish a new annual prize to celebrate the power of reading. At the start of last year’s festival weekend we were delighted to announce a partnership with the English Literature Department at Bath Spa University to do just this. Since then we have worked with English lecturer Nicola Presley, also New Media Manager at William Golding Ltd, and her students to design a competition which invited young people and adults to respond to a book with a piece of text or short film.
Once the deadline of 17 July had passed, student volunteers from Bath Spa sifted the entries in order to pass on a shortlist to the three judges – Jan Williamson, former chair of the Marlborough LitFest; Judy Golding, CEO of William Golding Ltd and writer; and Professor Neil Sammells, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Bath Spa University – to decide who should win first prize (£300) and be runner-up (£100) in each group. Stand by for the winners to be announced in September! Genevieve Clarke |
Luckily the Love Books Competition (www.lovebookscompetition.org) was launched in February so we were in a good position to encourage schools in particular to use it as an activity during lockdown. The competition was open to anyone across the country in three age groups – 13-16, 17-19 and 20 and above – but we are especially grateful to teachers at St John’s Academy and Marlborough College for encouraging their classes to take part.