26 February 2010

Celebrating new writing talent

An article that succeeded in showing Paris in an entirely new light has been selected as the winning entry of The British Guild of Travel Writers’ 50th Anniversary/Traveller magazine Travel Writing Competition.

Launched in association with Traveller magazine and Wexas, The Traveller's Club, the competition invited unpublished travel writers to pen a winning 800-word travel article "that brings a destination alive” and attracted more than 200 entries.

The winners were announced before an audience of 350 of Britain’s top travel writers, photographers and travel industry professionals on February 25 at London's newest landmark hotel, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, during the launch party of the Guild’s 50th Anniversary Yearbook.

First prize went to Sheila Killian, a finance lecturer from Limerick, whose poignant article described Paris through the fresh eyes of her young daughter. She won a four-day travel writing holiday in Istanbul courtesy of the travel writing and photography training agency, Travellers’ Tales, with flights from Pegasus.

Traveller editor Amy Sohanpaul said: “What really made it stand out for us was the fact that it was an intensely moving piece, and that, to my mind, is what makes the difference between a good piece of writing and an outstanding one - it must make you feel. And to show us Paris - a place that has been written about so many times - in a new way, through different eyes, is a real feat.”

Second prize went to Holly Brewer for a piece inspired by a riding journey through Kyrgyzstan whose description the judges agreed was "masterly". She won a trip for two to Berlin, courtesy of WEXAS, The Traveller’s Club, in association with Hotel Berlin and Lufthansa. The third prize winner was Marcus Dalrymple for his colourful piece which painted a lively picture of daily life in a Mexican town. He was awarded 10 Bradt travel guides.

The judging panel comprised Sarah Monaghan, prize-winning travel journalist; Amy Sohanpaul, editor of Traveller magazine; Jonathan Lorie, director of Travellers’ Tales, and Peter Hughes, founding editor of ITV’s Wish You Were Here and winner of the BGTW 2008 Travel Writer of the Year and 2009 Travel Press Awards Outstanding Contribution to Travel Journalism.

The British Guild of Travel Writers is the premier professional association for bona-fide journalists, editors, broadcasters and photographers working in the travel field. “The Guild has supported excellence in travel writing for half a century now and we wanted to celebrate our special year by championing new travel writing talent,” said BGTW Press and PR Co-ordinator Sarah Monaghan. "We were delighted by the enthusiastic response from competition entrants and at the quality of many of the scripts."

Traveller magazine was delighted to be involved in the competition, said Amy Sohanpaul. “We feature new writers and new voices as often as we can - it's an important part of our editorial wish-list. So it gave us great pleasure to read some highly engaging entries from people who are not established writers.”

Note to editors

Sheila Killian’s winning article will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of Traveller magazine as well as on the BGTW website www.bgtw.org [Under 'About Us > 50th Anniversary'] where the second and third prize articles may also be viewed, along with the judges' comments.

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