Philip Pullman to judge 2024 Martha Mills Young Writers’ Prize

The Martha Mills Young Writers’ Prize for UK writers aged 11 to 14 is returning for a second year, with Philip Pullman as a judge. Launched last year in memory of Martha Mills, who died aged 13 in 2021, the prize is run by the London Review Bookshop. This year’s theme is “A Secret”.

Three young winners will receive £200 each, as well as a selection of books and a “special souvenir”. They will also be invited to the bookshop to receive their awards – with their travel and accommodation expenses paid by the organisers.

The judges are looking for “lively, unusual or otherwise original” prose pieces under 500 words, and they add that submissions do not need to be “perfect or finished”. Entries can be anything from stories or schoolwork, to diary and journal entries. A selection of these will be published in a pamphlet, which will also include the winning entries.

Gayle Lazda from the London Review Bookshop will be judging the prize alongside Pullman this year, and will be joined by Martha’s parents, Guardian magazine editor Merope Mills and London Review of Books editor Paul Laity.