Pictured: Hau Tak receives his award for making the shortlist alongside OYP deputy director Liz Wallace (leftmost), Coventry Poet Laureate and judge John Bernard (second from left), and George Orwell’s son Richard Blair (rightmost) (Photo: Orwell Youth Prize)
It was back in early October last year when the Orwell Youth Prize (OYP) announced that they had selected the theme for their 2024 competition open to children in Years 7-13. For those of you who aren’t aware of what the OYP is, it is a writing competition organised by the Orwell Foundation, which is itself named after one of the most celebrated English-language writers and novelists in contemporary history - Eric Arthur Blair, known much more famously as George Orwell. Extending Orwell’s influence in literature and writing to young people of various ages and backgrounds, the OYP aims to promote the kind of incisive, observant and thought-provoking writing that Orwell demonstrated a mastery of in his own works. Last year I had the extraordinary opportunity to submit an entry to the OYP for the 2023 contest, and made the 43-person shortlist out of a total 570 entrants (you can read more about this here). I’m overjoyed to report that I’ve had that opportunity this year as well, so in this article I will give a summary of my experience with the 2024 Orwell Youth Prize.
As I mentioned earlier, it all started on 5th October when the OYP announced that the theme for 2024 would be “Home”. From the outset I realised that it was quite a broad but interesting topic. It was also one that played to my strengths as a writer, because my story as a migrant from Hong Kong to Britain gave me plenty of lived experience that I could draw on to give myself the inspiration I needed to craft a good story. But I still struggled profoundly during the first month or so after the theme was announced. Many fairly appealing ideas bounced around in my head. Among them was a nonfiction essay offering socio-political commentary on my home city of Hong Kong. Another interesting one was a semi-autobiographical short story comprising five separate but interconnected “memories”, which themselves consisted of my reflections on five past events at different points in my life. I spent days (or rather midnights, as I am most creative then) and weeks mulling over these potential entries, often writing and then immediately scrapping introductory paragraphs, sometimes subsequently abandoning the ideas altogether. The greatest writers may make writing seem easy if you have the skill and talent, but in reality it requires profound self-discipline and an ability to consistently find inspiration. As someone who actually has an extremely difficult time with both in relation to creative writing, it took me months before I could even finish a first draft (which was abruptly abandoned about a week later when I reviewed it and thought it horribly unsatisfactory).
My style of writing also created pitfalls which I had to avoid throughout the process of crafting a good enough submission for the OYP. As someone who - as aforementioned - struggles with inspiration and consistency, I often write in short bursts when I’m feeling incredibly emotional and feel the need to express that through frenzied, nonstop writing. But by writing incredibly passionately in a single sitting around midnight I often produced work that reflected my strong feelings at the moment but lacked the finesse and good discretion that would’ve made them stronger and more thematically relevant. I received this feedback when consulting our very own Mr Gibbs here at Bede’s, whom I am very grateful to for his continued support for my OYP efforts. This helped me both become a better writer (by learning from this experience) and start a new draft - one that would ultimately become the much more sensibly-titled Intrusion and Exile, my final submission this year.
To describe it in broad strokes, Intrusion and Exile is a semi-autobiographical short story framed as an internal dialogue between two fictionalised versions of myself. I drew heavily upon my feelings about belonging as a resident of and recent migrant to Britain, touching on things such as exclusion, bigotry and othering. It is also a pessimistic work, as my preference as a creative writer is to capture what I consider to be the “splendour” of sadness. Given my aforementioned struggles with finding inspiration, my stories tend to be autobiographies donning the mask of fiction, and this one is no exception. I believe that literature is one of the greatest facilitators of shared empathy, so I was over the moon when I was notified that my entry had made the 44-person shortlist out of a record-breaking 815 total entries - an even more exclusive shortlist compared to last year’s contest. This also meant that I had achieved the great feat of being shortlisted for two consecutive years - an achievement shared only with one other young writer in this year’s contest.
Pictured: Hau Tak reads an extract of his entry Intrusion and Exile to the other young writers and attendees at the Orwell Youth Prize Celebration Day event. (Photo: Orwell Youth Prize)
As a shortlisted writer I attended the OYP Celebration Day event at UCL in London on 6th July, where I was able to meet not only OYP administrator Tabby Hayward and deputy director Liz Wallace, but also - and I cannot stress enough that this has made my year - Orwell’s son Richard Blair! Early into the event we received wise words from Richard who offered advice and told us a story about a rather perilous incident at sea off the Scottish island of Jura with his father, which was followed by an exciting and fun workshop hosted by John Bernard, Coventry Poet Laureate and one of the judges for this year’s contest. Afterwards all shortlisted writers who were able to make it to the event had the opportunity to read excerpts from their entries (save for those with shorter entries - they read them out in full), which gave us a chance to witness (or rather, listen to) each other’s creative talent. Then the prize-giving took place, and though I unfortunately missed out on any of the prizes, I was gifted an Orwell Foundation tote bag and copies of Orwell’s Essays as well as Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit as congratulations for making the shortlist.
Pictured: Richard Blair (left) and Hau Tak (right) at the event. (Photo: Hau Tak Ng)
It has been an absolute pleasure from start to finish to participate in the OYP for the second year in a row and to receive recognition once again from my creative writing work. My deepest gratitude must go to not only Mr Gibbs as aforementioned but also my tutor Ms Saoulidou for her enthusiastic support all the way through, as well as Dan, my best friend in Hong Kong, for reading my drafts and helping me come up with my final title. I’d also like to thank my parents for cheering me on and the school for its support. Please be assured that I intend to make a third and final attempt at winning the OYP via next year’s contest!