An aspiring author from a West Norfolk Academies Trust school has seen her talent recognised with a prestigious writing accolade.

Millie Follen, who is a Year 12 student at Springwood High School, received the Norfolk Young Writers Award for her short story ‘He’s Not There’, which she composed while attending a creative writing group at the school.

“The piece was about a young boy who was grieving his brother and struggled to understand his absence both within his home and his everyday life,” she said.

“I found out about the competition through my wonderful teacher, Miss Richardson, who runs the club – so a lot of my thanks for the award goes to Miss Richardson and her incredible encouragement.

“The piece was mainly formed through a prompt from my teacher about constructing a very strong narrative voice. I took inspiration from the opening paragraph of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, which was a piece that my teacher gave us to take inspiration from.

“When deciding my narrative voice, I thought that there was no better way to construct an easily identifiable character than by placing myself in the shoes of a young child, allowing me to highlight the naivety and the tragedy that comes with dealing with grief and loss at an early age.”

The annual competition, which is organised by the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, is open to children and young people aged ten to 18, and covers both fiction and non-fiction.

Winners in the 16- to 18-year-old category, including Millie, were also nominated as Young Norfolk Laureates, qualifying them for extra writing opportunities and mentoring.

She continued: “I was entirely elated when I realised that I had won the competition. Creative Writing Club had really helped my confidence when writing and sharing my work, but winning the competition just exemplified that feeling commonly shared by writers that what I write is something that people truly enjoy reading.

“One of my worries when submitting my winning piece was that its ideas were too ‘out there’ and too far-fetched to resonate fully with readers. However, in hearing both the other incredible work produced by the winners, as well as the applause I received myself after reading my piece at the ceremony, I realised that the winners of this competition were some of the writers of the future, including myself, and, with technology such as AI, and the reproduction of similar ideas across the literary canon, readers want to hear originality in work, rather than a regurgitation of the past.”

Luke Rawling is Head of Year 12 at Springwood, which is part of the West Norfolk Academies Trust, and was delighted with the sixth former’s achievement.

“Millie is a fantastic member of the Springwood Sixth Form community, and a keen member of our Creative Writing Society here at the Sixth Form,” he said.

“We are so proud that Millie has won the Young Norfolk Writing Prize and has been nominated as a Young Norfolk Laureate.

“I am particularly touched to hear that, thanks to the award, Millie has now realised the potential she has, and is considering a career as a future author.”