Ellen's winter tale wins prestigious short story prize

PAST pupil Ellen McKeag is thrilled to have won a prestigious writing competition which has seen her work come to life in a podcast.

The Yorkshire-based theatre company Northern Broadsides, alongside creative writing charity Arvon, invited writers from across the north of England to submit a short winter’s tale of between 2,000-3,000 words, something people would love to listen to on a cold wintry day in front of a fire.

Ellen, studying creative writing at Leeds Arts University, wrote City Winter, about a man who captures a snowflake in a city where snowflakes are extinct, and it becomes his obsession to preserve it.

The story, a gentle reminder of the relationships we can lose with each other, and with nature, a prompt to treasure every small moment and every falling snowflake, won her first place and a cash prize of £750.

It is now available as a professionally recorded podcast, read by northern actor Neil Grainger.

Ellen, who grew up in the countryside outside Ripon, and won a number of writing competitions when she was a student at RGS, draws from her rural upbringing and her time as a falconer to inform her writing.

She says: “I wanted to try my hand at a different sort of story and the idea came to me fairly quickly and naturally. I wanted something reflective of the winter I was living in Leeds.

“I have grown up in the country and am entirely unused to city living. The winter so far has felt extremely different to what I’m used to, so I based the story around the difference between the urban and rural experience.”

In her story, news of the snowflake’s existence gets out and it attracts a growing crowd with the situation beginning to spiral out of control. The main character ultimately decides to leave the city and travel into the countryside where he can release the snowflake back into its natural habitat.

“Winter is my favourite time of the year and I wanted to write a little about how it makes me feel. I was extremely surprised to win but thrilled at the same time. It is a wonderful feeling to have something you have created recognised by others. I think, perhaps, I’m more excited about the recording than the £750 prize,” says Ellen, who left RGS in 2022 after taking A-levels in maths, chemistry, physics and economics.

Laurie Sansom, Northern Broadsides’ Artistic Director and CEO, said: “It was a treat to read such a variety of responses to the brief that was is reflected in our winning entry and runners up. Ellen’s story boldly combined many things - it’s an absurdist fable warning us what we could lose, and a heart-warming modern Christmas tale about what is precious. We hope everyone will enjoy the recording of the winning entry.”

Helen Mellor Co-Director at Lumb Bank & Arvon at Home, praised the quality of submissions: “It's been magical reading allthe submissions, such a rich diversity of voices and stories and it was super hard to choose - such a lot of talent in the region!”

In addition to Ellen’s story as a professionally recorded podcast, the written version, alongside those of the two runners-up, Nutkin by Denise Eaton and The Sentinel by Gill Petrucci, will be posted on the Northern Broadsides and Arvon websites until January 6.

*Listen to the winning story and read the runners up, for free, here or wherever you get your podcasts.