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Random House Children's and online writing community Movellas.com have announced a Coventry teenager as winner of the Sony Young Movellist of the Year award.
Nineteen-year-old Helen Hiorns won the prize—a publishing contract from RHCP—with her novel The Name on Your Wrist. The book is published immediately in e-book form and will be available exclusively on the Sony Reader Store for two days before being made available to other retailers.
The Name on Your Wrist was chosen from over 100 entries by Random House editors alongside Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, who said of the winning entry: "Wow! What a story! And what I loved about this was the way all the major characters were so fleshed out and real. And I couldn't predict the ending. In fact, I didn't even see that ending coming." She added: "I loved the idea of each person's soulmate being written on their wrist, but Corin, the heroine, is full of questions about how her soulmate has been chosen and why."
RHCP editor Natalie Doherty said the winning novel stood out "for the quality of the writing, the feisty and complicated but extremely likeable main character, and the fact that it gripped us right from the first paragraph". Movellas community director Yvonne Biggins added: "Helen Hiorns has created a world not too dissimilar from the world we live in today, but yet so different. And the subtlety in her writing is a real strength."
The winner and two runners-up—Kyra Schlachter's My Corrupted Lungs and Emma Yeo's Girl with a Thousand Faces—were announced at a ceremony at King's Place in London, sponsored by the Sony Reader Store, last night (15th July).