CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS SEEK BUDDING HISTORICAL WRITERS AS 2017 YOUNG WALTER SCOTT PRIZE OPENS FOR ENTRIES   The Young Walter Scott Prize, the UK’s only creative writing prize for young people dedicated to historical fiction, is now open for entries. Budding young historical novelists aged between 11 and 19 have until 31 October 2017 to enter the creative writing competition, with a chance to win a £500 travel grant and a VIP invitation to one of the UK’s best book festivals.   This prestigious prize has also programmed a series of Imagining History creative writing workshops, taking place across the UK in June and July, created specifically to give young people a chance to immerse themselves in historical places from the point of view of the writer.  The Young Walter Scott Prize writing competition and Imagining History workshops aim to inspire young writers to play with ideas, to explore the cracks between historical facts, and to become the historical novelists of the future.   Participants in the creative writing workshops will be encouraged to enter their stories for the prize, now in its third year.  Judges are looking for a piece of creative writing between 800 and 2000 words, inspired by any aspect of the past – an actual historical event, place or person. It simply has to be set in a time before the writer was born – a time recognisably different from the present.   Entries will be judged in two categories – 11 to 15 years and 16 to 19 years. The winners of each category win a £500 travel grant to enable them to visit the historic site of their choice anywhere in the UK, and a VIP invitation to the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, in June 2018, to receive their prizes. Two runners-up in each category receive a book token, and all four winning stories are published in a special YWSP anthology book.   The 2016 YWSP winners Demelza Mason (15), from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire (winner in the 11-15 age group) and Alice Sargent (16), from Carmarthenshire, (winner in the 16-19 age group) will be presented with their prizes at Borders Book Festival on Saturday 17 June.   The Young Walter Scott Prize was set up two years ago by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, and is named after Sir Walter Scott, who as a boy sent to live in the Scottish Borders, set about exploring the countryside and listening to the stories of the people he met there. This inspired him to write, and to later become the most celebrated author of his time.   The workshops will led by writers and experts in interpreting historical places, who can help young writers see the past in new ways, and to begin writing or developing their work further. The YWSP is building partnerships with organisations such as the National Trust, Historic Environment Scotland and the Heritage Education Trust to create unique access-all- areas opportunities for young writers, all over the country. For full details of workshop bookings and how to enter the prize, please visit the YWSP website or social media channels: www.ywsp.co.uk  twitter @waltscottprize   facebook @walterscottprize  instagram walterscottprize