Commended Writers

Two students have been highly commended in this year’s GDST Creative Writing prize for their stories on the theme of ‘belonging.’

Entries from schools across the Girls’ Day School Trust were judged by author Rachel Hore, an alumna of Sutton High School. After reading Modern History at Oxford, Rachel worked as an editor for HarperCollins before teaching creative writing at the University of East Anglia; she is now a full-time author and has written eleven novels.

Zara in Year 9 was highly commended in the Year 7 to 9 category; her story, The Lure, about a sailor who falls for a siren and hence to his doom, was praised as: “An extremely vividly told and unusual story.” 

Duha in the Lower Sixth was also highly commended in her age category for her story entitled Belonging. Rachel commented: “A deeply felt, closely observed and insightful reflection about identity.”

Well done to both our writers.