Philip Murnin wins Sceptre award

The Sceptre Prize for emerging writers, worth £1,500, has been awarded to Philip Murnin, an English Literature teacher whose writing often explores the lives of teenagers.

Murnin took the prize for the extract from his novel, Phoenixland, with his win announced at the Aye Write! literary festival in Glasgow on 17th March [Saturday]. The novel tells the story of a drug addiction from the point of view of a child.

Sceptre publishing director Carole Welch said: "The judges found much to enjoy and admire in all three shortlisted entries so it was a close-run competition, but we are very pleased to have awarded the prize to Philip Murnin. He writes with verve, humour and compassion, and shows he is technically skilful too-a worthy winner!"

The other writers on the shortlist were Maggie Ritchie for Dreams in Stone and Miles Beard for The Lazy King. All students from Glasgow University's Edwin Morgan Centre for creative writing who achieved distinctions in their final projects were eligible to submit 5,000 or 10,000 words of a novel or novel in progress to the prize.

Murnin is from Glasgow, and last year won the Gillian Purvis Award for New Writing.