Master’s student Sally, from Bradford, won the Andrea Badenoch Award at the Northern Writers’ Awards after submitting a 3,000-6,000-word extract and synopsis from the novel she’s writing as part of her degree.

Sally’s novel, Borrowed Time, is set in a dystopian future Britain shaped by climate change. The novel illustrates the difficult but necessary decisions taken by humanity in a world devastated by environmental and climate crisis.

Sally said: “As soon as I enrolled at Leeds Trinity University, I felt part of an inclusive, ambitious writing community. As well as learning from three fantastic tutors, we were encouraged to learn from each other. Leeds Trinity does a brilliant job of reaching out to the wider community through its annual writing festival and the monthly open-mic WordSpace events. Having the spark of an idea which has the potential to become a novel is a huge gift and I would love my work to reach a wide readership. The support of New Writing North will be a fantastic boost in marketing my novel.”  

Established in 2000 by New Writing North, the Northern Writers’ Awards support writers creatively as they develop their work towards publication, progress in their writing career and work towards publication. The Andrea Badenoch Award is open to unpublished female fiction writers over the age of 42 who reside in the North of England.

Sally received her award in an online ceremony on Wednesday 24 June, which includes a professional mentoring package, an introduction to leading independent publisher One World and a bursary of £2,000. 

Martyn Bedford, novelist and Senior Lecturer on the MA in Creative Writing at Leeds Trinity, said: "This is one of the leading awards for new writers in the UK, so it's a wonderful achievement for Sally to win it. It's richly deserved, too – she's a very talented writer whose compelling novel makes an important contribution to the literature that is emerging in response to our global environmental crisis. 

“The MA programme has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2013 and we're delighted to add Sally's name to the list of our students to win prizes and have their work published." 

Alongside her MA studies, Sally also writes poetry, short stories and during lockdown she started a blog encouraging readers to grow food at home. Her blog recently impressed Northern Life magazine and she has been commissioned to write a monthly column with the publication. 

The Northern Writers’ Awards are sponsored by Arts Council England. More information about the Andrea Badenoch Award and submission guidelines can be found on the website.