17th February, 2025
YWSP Shortlist announced
Congratulations to the young writers shortlisted for this year’s Young Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction! Writers aged 11 to 19 entered from all over the UK, and their names and story titles are listed below. Winners will be announced in March, in advance of the prizegiving in June at the Borders Book Festival.
The YWSP Shortlist
11-15 AGE GROUP
Captured Constellation by Zaynah Arshad
Angharad by Etta Ferner
Pink Cardigan by Mary Gardner Smart
The Stray Anomaly by Henrietta Gee
Mary and Joseph by Anya Grewal
Hope by Elan Latif
Together We Are Dynamite by Sara Musabbir
The Unknown Warrior by Alexandre Portier
A Number by Elsa Rogers
The Kobukson by Poppy-Mei Soon
Notes from Year Zero by Rosemary Storr
In War by Beanalissa Tsui
Mouse by Suzannah Tulloch
Did We Deserve This? by Aariyaki Vijithan
A Bog; A Blaze by Katherine White
16 – 19 AGE GROUP
Seven Sundays of Sorrow by Alexander Andrews
Good Fight by Henry Arbuckle
The Red Road by Sophie Berry
The Dividing Line by Abbie Englund
The Road to Nowhere by Angus Forsyth
Juvenilia by Queena Gu
City Rot by Bella Lee
The Boy and the Man, Easter 1916 by James Majid
Seven Angels With Seven Plagues by Freya Roodhouse
Isabella by Connie Schoales
Romanov by Hersh Singh
Near Parting by Rudy Walker
Dancing Giants by Atlas Weyland Eden