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The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University is a writing competition open to all writers between the ages of 14 –18 and was created to discover and inspire the next generation of writers. It is a cross-network collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and Radio 1 and this year's competition announced an all-female shortlist, one of whom is our very own Holly D.  Her story, ‘Wildfolk Report 2025’, is a mythological understanding of the climate crisis and its impact on fairy tale creatures. Holly wrote a piece for us about her experience at Cambridge, and the awards ceremony at the BBC which took place on Tuesday:

'On Friday, 26th September, I went to Cambridge. After a bracing 6.30am start, and a two hour journey, we came to the car park of Robinson College, where I was delighted to see a parking space reserved in my name (this had never happened to me before). After a quick meeting with my fellow ‘young writers’ - they would call us ‘young writers’ throughout the day - we were whisked off to the University Library, for the first event. 

I would recommend looking up the Cambridge University Library: it is an imposing tower of books, and quite intimidating for me, until we met the resident librarian, a lovely woman who took us off into a side room to show us ‘some of the collection’. The first thing I realised upon stepping into the room was that I was standing in front of one of Shakespeare’s First Folios. What took a little more time to understand, however, was the first edition of 'Ulysses' sat beside it; the fragments of the Odyssey next to that; and the Gutenberg Bible inconspicuously sat on the table opposite. From this point onwards, it wasn’t much of a stretch to comprehend that we could look through anything we liked (we were encouraged to sniff the Gutenberg Bible) because I was firmly convinced I was dreaming. But I have the pictures to prove it, and the feeling of those historical pages are still on my fingers. If you want to know what a First Folio feels like, it is concerningly fragile to touch.

Lunch was not too interesting, but the PhD student sat beside me was, and we had a long conversation about leftist theatre of the 1940s, a subject that Drama A Level had just about prepared me for. After lunch we were taken on a tour of the college (lovely, but I’ve already applied to the other half of Oxbridge) and then we went on to the creative writing workshop. This had a much more relaxed air than the morning, which was welcome; although it was very fun, unfortunately, nothing could match up to the first edition copy of Jane Eyre that I’d held in my hands earlier that day.

There is so much else I could mention (the printing demonstration, the walk through Cambridge, the hatred every student ambassador had for the College dog) but this was only half of it, because on Tuesday, 30th September, I went to the BBC Young Writers’ award ceremony.

After a long train journey, we showed up at Broadcasting House, where I was greeted with crisps and chaperones. Our first stop of the day was a Q&A with an agent: though none of us worked up the nerve to ask how the whole ‘being published’ thing works, she told us a lot of illuminating facts. Then, we went on a brief tour of the recording studios, and I briefly role-played being a radio presenter. After that, we had another creative writing workshop, this time with one of the authors who had judged our stories, an intimidating but kind woman.

A brief dinner occurred, and then it was time for The Ceremony. I haven’t mentioned yet how it felt to be in Broadcasting House: it was odd to see this place, so long glimpsed in the background of BBC News South East, alive and in person. I was humming the One Show theme all day. But the media cafe was a separate beast, an exclusive club filled with important media personalities, famous writers, and our parents (and for me, the illustrious Dr Blanch). We sat down to start the radio broadcast and for the first time I realised William Boyd was there, ready to present the award for the national short story competition, which was also happening that night. 

Now, I should say that I didn’t win the competition. But I got pretty close. And the experiences I had were incredible - memories I hope I never let go of. To wax poetical for a moment, the process of this competition has made me realise, more than anything, that I might actually be a writer, instead of a serial Google docs scribbler. It’s a wonderful feeling. And if I can be a writer, I hope I can inspire you to be something you’ve always wanted to be. Who knows! Maybe you’ll also get to smell a Gutenberg Bible.

Holly D, U6T

If you would like to listen to Holly's story, the five shortlisted stories and interviews with the writers are available to listen to on BBC Sounds (Holly's starts at approximately 38 minutes in). The readers of this year’s stories include Amit Shah (Happy Valley, Mr Bates vs. The Post Office), Maggie Service (Good Omens, Doctor Who) and Priya Kansara (Bridgerton, Polite Society). Do you have a story to tell?  Perhaps you would like to enter the competition yourself? Submissions will open again in the new year for the 2026 Award.