Heuch wins Firefly's fiction competition 

North Wales based writer Chloë Heuch has been crowned the overall winner of Firefly Press’s New Children’s Fiction from Wales competition.

The indie press’ prize aims to discover the best new writing for children coming from Welsh authors currently without publishing deals.

Heuch scooped the title with her funny middle grade story "A History of My Weird" and will receive a place on Literature Wales’ Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre residential course in 2023.

Three age category winners and the overall winner were selected by children’s authors Catherine Fisher, Catherine Johnson and Malachy Doyle, alongside Firefly publisher Penny Thomas.

Heuch’s title also won the nine to 12 age category of the competition, and was described as "a genuinely funny, character-led novel with a fresh voice, one that deserves to find readers," by Johnson.

The other category winners included Victoria Pici for her story "The Map of Rhos" for children aged seven to nine, described by Doyle as "a delightfully written, captivating story of fairies battling to regain their rightful homes, which have been stolen by invading elves".

Lucy Mohan won the 12-plus category for "Wick Wood", which Thomas described as "a thrilling, twisty, whodunnit with a genuinely creepy setting". The winner of each category wins a one-to-one editorial session with a Firefly editor.

"We wanted to run a competition to find great new children’s fiction and authors writing from Wales and give everyone a chance to submit to us, and we have certainly done that, with some awesome results," said Thomas. "All entries to the competition were judged anonymously and I’d like to thank the judges for their hard work. We are delighted with the results and may look to make this competition a regular event."