Winners of the BGTW Travel Writing Competition

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An article that succeeded in communicating the dichotomy of old and new Japan has been selected as the winning entry of The British Guild of Travel Writers’/Traveller Magazine Competition for Unpublished Writers.

Run in association with Traveller magazine and Wexas, The Traveller's Club, the competition invited unpublished travel writers to pen a winning 800-word travel article with the theme ‘Portrait of a City’ and attracted close to 200 entries. The winners were announced before an audience of 350 of Britain’s top travel writers, photographers and travel industry professionals on March 8 at the London Transport Museum during the launch party of the Guild’s 2011 Yearbook.

First prize went to Rebecca Milford, 24 (pictured), whose delicately crafted article described Tokyo and the chance encounter with an old Japanese man. She won a four-day travel writing holiday to be held in Istanbul, Andalucia or Marrakesh courtesy of the travel writing and photography creative training agency, Travellers’ Tales.

“It was absolutely fantastic to win the prize and hear how much professional writers enjoyed my story!” she said. “I love the travel-writing genre and it is a huge honour to be published among these other journalists. It has given me the confidence to continue writing about my wanderings, and I can’t wait to get the creative juices flowing on the writing retreat prize!”

Second prize went to Helen Moat, 49, a primary school teacher from Derbyshire “with a passion for beautiful language and landscapes”, for a piece inspired by a return trip to Zurich where she had spent time as a young student, whose description the judges agreed was "poignant and original". She won two CityJet flights to her choice of European destination, courtesy of WEXAS – The Traveller’s Club.

The third prize winner was Marsha Hillman for a colourful piece about suburban Jakarta. She was awarded 10 Frommer’s travel guides.