Student from Belfast wins Young Writer Competition in 10th anniversary year

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Kaila Patterson is the winner of the 2026 Young Writer Competition, as Goldsmiths marks a decade of the Young Writer Competitions.

A woman in a black dress with a burgundy scarf, a woman in a black and white spotted dress and a man in a black suit and white shirt by red curtains. — Winner of the 2026 Young Writer Competition Kaila Patterson (left) with Vice-Chancellor Professor Joanna Newman and China Miéville, who won the 2026 Goldsmiths Prize for his novel, The Rouse.

Goldsmiths Young Writer Competition is open to young people aged 16-18 and aims to uncover the next generation of writing talent. For this year’s competition, entrants submitted a thousand-word short story responding to the title ‘Caught in the Loop'.

Kaila Patterson, from Belfast and now studying in Dublin, is the winner of the 2026 Young Writer Competition and was awarded the £500 prize.

Reacting to her success, Kaila said: "When I won the competition, I couldn't stop staring at the email in total shock. I was working at a summer camp at the time and about to head off on an excursion, and when I went to check the time, I saw the 'congratulations!' pop up and felt such a big wave of delight, excitement and everything in between. I couldn't get the smile off my face for the rest of the day."

Head Judge, Jen Calleja, said, "We were all blown away by the writer's ability to not only craft an accomplished short story in under 1000 words, but also make it funny."

The writing is confident and controlled but full of surprises. It was a joy to select this as our winner.

Head Judge, Jen Calleja

A woman in a black dress with a burgundy scarf and a woman in a black dress with white spots stand in front of red curtains. — Kaila with Vice-Chancellor Professor Joanna Newman, who congratulated Kaila on her achievement during her welcome talk to the event.

The Young Writer Competition for creative writing launched ten years ago, encouraging young people with a passion for the written word to submit their short stories. Since then, other subjects have also been included, and this year three competitions are running: Young Writer, Young Anthropologist and Young Psychologist.

As Young Writer winner, Kaila attended the Goldsmiths Prize ceremony in central London. Writer China Miéville, whose novel The Rouse was announced as the 2026 winning title, was present to accept his award.

A woman in a black dress and burgundy scarf and a man in a white shirt and black suit stood in front of some red curtains. — Kaila Patterson, Young Writer Competition winner and China Miéville, winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2026, at the Goldsmiths Prize ceremony in London.

Now in its 14th year, the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize celebrates fiction that breaks the mould and extends the possibilities of the novel. The Rouse was commended by the judges for breaking "most explosively with expectation".

Find out more about the Young Writer competitions and read Kaila's winning story