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HOW IT WORKS
The Pushkin Prizes offer a unique opportunity for 10 pupils from schools throughout Scotland to attend a five-day creative writing course at the Arvon Foundation Writers’ Centre near Inverness. Past tutors have included professional writers, Gerry Cambridge, Anna Crowe, Alan Durant, Diana Hendry and Catherine MacPhail.
The Pushkin Prizes also funds a place for a teacher to attend the course.
Pupils in S1 and S2 are selected as a result of their creative writing folios. Each must contain three pieces of creative writing, each no longer than 1200 words long. Pupils can write about anything they wish, and they can write in any genre, or combination of genres.
Previous winners have included poetry, prose, reportage, debate, travel writing and autobiography. The judges are looking for imaginative, lively and original writing. Attention to detail is essential – accurate spelling and punctuation can make all the difference.
Look at recent winning folios on this website and in The Pushkin Prizes anthologies to explore the range of writing under consideration.
Folios can be prepared as part of a class project, in a writing group, or at home - they should be accompanied by an official entry form which you can find HERE.
If you do not have a teacher who will authorise your entry, please contact the Director, Lindsey Fraser, via our contact form.
If folios are not typed, they must be legible and written in ink. Illegible entries will be disqualified.
HOW DID IT BEGIN?
The Pushkin Prizes began when some of Alexander Pushkin's descendants,
together with lovers of his work, gathered together in 1987 to mark
the 150th anniversary of his death. Lady Butter, inspired to perpetuate
her ancestor's memory in a unique and appropriate way, launched the
creative writing competition as a pilot project in Scottish secondary
schools in Tayside in 1988. The project was such a success that in
1992 the charitable trust was established and over the last decade
the extent of the project has expanded to include every state secondary
school in Scotland as well as schools in and around Pushkin's hometown
of St Petersburg.
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