A young writer is getting awarded for her work for the second year in a row. Laura Stacey, a Grade 9 student at Bowden Grandview School recently placed as a runner-up for the 2012 Martyn Godfrey Young Writer's Award.
As recognition for her talent, Stacey and her school will be visited by an Alberta literary artist in October through the Young Alberta Book Society's Taleblazers Festival.
“This year I submitted a fairy tale parody I had written in Grade 7,” said Stacey, explaining she reworked the story to bring it up to her current level of writing but maintained the plot she had created a few years prior.
“It's a parody of Sleeping Beauty. The prince has a bit more attitude,” she said as an example. She said the story was modernized with the prince playing Halo. As well, he was aware he was in a fairy tale.
Stacey, who's been a passionate writer since she could hold a pencil, said her friend first told her about the competition last year when she was also a runner-up for a story she wrote that reflected the required theme of yellow.
As an award, she was given a chance to attend the Writers Guild of Alberta's Words Worth youth writing camp.
“I'm getting two different experiences which is great,” she said.
This is the last year Stacey can apply for the competition which is targeted at Grade 7 to 9 students.
The award is named after Martyn Godfrey (1949-2000) a popular juvenile fiction author who was a schoolteacher when one of his students challenged him to write a story for class. He ended up writing more than 40 books for young people.
For more information about the competition, or to view the list of winners, visit www.yabs.ab.ca.
