Lillian Long, a Year 12 student at Xaverian College, has been highly commended in the prestigious Portico Sadie Massey Awards, which aim to encourage a life-long love of reading and writing in young people from all backgrounds.
Established in 2015, the Awards are named after Glasgow-born Sadie Massey and her desire to spread a love of reading and writing. The Portico Library works with Manchester’s most respected ambassadors of children’s and young adults’ writing, with a particular emphasis on exploring stories based in the North of England, past, present or future.
Lillian based her short story in the North of England in an area of the Lake District which is her favourite place to be. Entitled ‘From the East of Derwentwater’, the short story looks at the deep desire of a nursing home resident to achieve the unlikely ascent of a formidable mountain in the Lake District, and Lillian said: “I wanted to put a unique voice in the piece so I loosely based it off one of my favourite books, called ‘Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk.”
Commenting on her achievement, Lillian said: “I was really surprised when I found out I was awarded ‘highly commended’ but I feel very grateful to have been chosen! My teacher encouraged me to get involved with the competition in our creative writing club, mainly to gain experience and also to build up a portfolio. Writing is my main passion and anything that challenges me to write on a singular prompt/subject helps me to leave my comfort zone and expand my style.”
Lillian joined the College in September 2023, after completing her GCSEs at Flixton Girls School and is currently studying A Levels in English Language and Literature, Film Studies and History. Lillian commented: “I study a combined English Language and Literature A Level so you get to study a whole range of areas instead of just one side, and my teacher is really supportive and enthusiastic about it as well. I also love the level of creative freedom we get to have when doing our fiction coursework.
She continued “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to be doing in the future, but I know I want to keep writing and hopefully be able to work in an area where that’s involved in some way.”
Guy Perry, English Teacher at Xaverian College, said: “We always encourage students to participate in the Portico Sadie Massey Awards and it is extremely pleasing to see Xaverian students recognised for their fantastic work again this year. Competitions present something rather beautiful to the critical and curious mind, and the freedom they offer to explore ideas and texts allows students like Lillian to truly challenge themselves outside of the classroom.”