The Young Alberta Book Society is delighted to announce the winner and runners-up of the 2012 Martyn Godfrey Young Writers’ Award, sponsored by Servus Credit Union.
2012’s grand prize winner is Davin Anderson, 13, of Lloydminster. Davin will be attending the Writers Guild of Alberta’s WordsWorth youth writing camp in Bragg Creek in July. The runners-up are Laura E. Stacey of Bowden and Caileigh Reid of Grande Prairie. These three talented young writers will be visited by an Alberta literary artist in their school classrooms in October through the Young Alberta Book Society’s Taleblazers Festival. Taleblazers is a province-wide literary festival where Albertan authors, illustrators and storytellers work with students through presentations and workshops in schools and libraries throughout October.
“Servus Credit Union is delighted to sponsor the Young Alberta Book Society’s Martyn Godfrey Award. Fostering a love of reading and literacy is key to enriching the lives of youth,” said Garth Warner, President and CEO of Servus Credit Union. “We’d like to congratulate the winner of the award, Davin Anderson, and of course recognize the runners-up, Laura E. Stacey and Caileigh Reid for a job well done.”
The Award is named after Martyn Godfrey (1949-2000), a prolific and popular juvenile fiction author who was a schoolteacher when one of his students challenged him to write a story for his class. The story turned into his first book and Mr. Godfrey became a published author. He quickly found his niche and eventually wrote more than 40 books for young people. Over the last decade, hundreds of Albertan junior high students have taken up the challenge to emulate Martyn Godfrey by submitting a funny story to this annual competition.
The winning entry is presented on the Young Alberta Book Society website at http://www.yabs.ab.ca.