Coventry's Young Writer of the Year

Group of finalists

Kanivily Srikanesh, a year 6 pupil from Aldermoor Farm school, has beaten over 2,200 young writers to be named Coventry Building Society’s Young Writer of the Year 2023. The annual competition, which is open to all primary school children in the city aged 7-11, asked young writers to submit a story which started with the sentence, “I looked out of the window, and I could not believe my eyes…” – after which their imaginations could run wild. 20 finalists were chosen to attend an awards ceremony on World Book Day where winners from each year group category were announced, before Kanivily was named the overall winner.

Kanivily Srikanesh The other winners are:

Riley Kavanagh, Year 3 pupil from Our Lady’s

Humairah Begum, Year 4 pupil from St Laurence’s

Aadhya Rahul, Year 5 pupil from Grange Farm

The winners were selected by a panel of judges including local children’s author Ann Evans, father/son author duo Aaron and Oscar Ashmore, a former English teacher, and a creative writing expert from Explore Learning*. The judges attended the awards ceremony – held at the Coventry Building Society Arena – to announce the winners, gave out prizes, talked about why they love writing, and read the winning stories to the audience.

Leanne Stanley, Senior Community Specialist at Coventry Building Society, said: “The talent of young people in our city is astonishing. The stories went from dinosaurs to secret agents to a harrowing retelling of the Blitz – it’s hard to believe they were written by children under the age of 12. These young writers are an absolute triumph. “We want to say an extra big thank you to every single young writer who entered. Our judges had so much fun reading through the stories, and all said it was near impossible to choose a winner. Every young writer should be so proud!” Ann Evans, children’s author in Coventry, said: “I was delighted to be asked to help judge the competition to find Coventry’s Young Writer of the Year again. It’s an excellent way of encouraging children to write and there really were some fabulous stories. It was so difficult to select just five from each year. I think every child who entered should be congratulated. I thought the standard was very high and that is so encouraging, knowing that we have some talented future writers in our city.”

The Awards Ceremony

Aaron Ashmore, children’s author in Coventry, said: “It was a massive pleasure to read hundreds of stories from across the city, it was just so hard to judge! These really are the best of the best of the young writers in Coventry and it is great to see that the future of Coventry writing is in safe hands.”

Jacquie Turner, retired English Teacher from Henley Green Primary school, said: “It was such a privilege to take part in such a positive and inclusive event celebrating the considerable writing talents of young Coventrians. The stories were all stunning. It was really, really hard work to shortlist. Masses of stories could have been shortlisted. It felt like every single one I read was a winner.”