The Wicked Young Writers' Award was launched by the long-running West End musical Wicked to recognise excellence in writing, encourage creativity and develop writing talent in young people across the country.

Any young person between the ages of 5 and 25 years old is eligible to enter one of the various age group categories, making the award the first of its kind to reward excellence to such a wide age-range of young people across the whole of the UK.

“I hope the Award will be able to bring the passion and energy of Wicked’ amazing theatrical show and reach across age-ranges and backgrounds, to young people and their writing. Let’s hope that many, many young people will be encouraged to begin their own storytelling journeys.”  Michael Morpurgo

The Prizes:

• Judging will be overseen by former Children's Laureate and bestselling author Michael Morpurgo, as well as Michael McCabe, Executive Producer of Wicked in London, and William Fiennes, author and founder of First Story.
• The 20 shortlisted entries from each age category will be invited to a very special prize ceremony attended by the judging panel, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall plus cast members from the show!
• All shortlisted entries from 5 - 17 Years age categories will each receive a published 2012 Wicked Young Writers' Award Anthology of their writing, whilst older shortlisted writers from the Gregory Maguire Award will be published in an EXCLUSIVE downloadable e-Book available from the Wicked Young Writers' Award website!
• One young writer will be chosen as the overall winner of their age category and will receive:
• An exclusive Wicked experience inclusive of four tickets to see the London production of Wicked and an opportunity to meet cast members after the show.
• A Wicked writing master class from a published writer or one of the Wicked Young Writers' Award judges.
• All shortlisted entries from 5 – 17 Years age categories will be published in the 2012 Wicked Young Writers' Award Anthology!Shortlisted entries from the Gregory Maguire Award will be published in an EXCLUSIVE downloadable e-Book available from the Wicked Young Writers' Award website!