The Photography & Creative Writing Competition 20182 min read

2018 was a really productive year for You Press in terms of our collaborations with different organisations.

Having completed the ROOTS LDN Community Research Project back in early May at City Hall, our next step involved teaming up with Paddington Arts, who hosted a Photography & Creative Writing competition.

Paddington Arts were able to encourage young people to explore issues that affect their lives with the funding support of Google and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

Multiple projects were funded for similar bodies as ISD are looking to tackle extremism and hate crime with the help of grassroots organisations and inspirational individuals.

The competition ran from May to November with a great number of story, poetry and photography entries available to view now on ScribersHive.

For the writing category, participants had to submit a creative extract worth 1000 words while photographers had to submit one original image related to the themes of Faith, Identity and Belonging.

With the deadline passing on 30th November 2018, a panel of seven judges chose three submissions from both categories as the winners of the competition.

Below is the list of winners for the Photography & Creative Writing Competition 2018:

Photography

1st) Erin Spillane – Belonging

2nd) Thaakshajini Vasanthakumaran – Swami

3rd)  Nasra – The Entire Ocean in a Drop

Creative Writing

1st) Shaniqua Benjamin – Don’t Tell Me

2nd) Nabeela Mulbocus – The Ethnicity Tick Box

3rd) Maryam Nahhal – How I

Each winner was awarded with a prize on Wednesday 30th January 2019 at the YouTube Space London in St. Pancras.

Google and ISD Global hosted an event at the YouTube Space inviting organisations who have worked in similar projects. Nabeela had the chance to perform her original piece live in front of an audience!

Physical copies of the Faith, Identity & Belonging Anthology were given to the winners to cherish and shared to other guests.

You can get your copy of the booklet too if you come to visit us at the Paddington Arts Facility.

Photo by You Press