Stirling student scoops Scottish journalism award

A University of Stirling journalism student has landed a national writers’ award.

Florence Breitstadt received the student prize in the Ian Bell ‘New Writing’ competition for an unpublished piece by a writer under 30.

The award was presented at ‘The Importance of Good Journalism’ event at Glasgow’s Aye Write! Book Festival, held in the city’s Royal Concert Hall, earlier this month.

Florence, a fourth-year journalism student, won for her piece on ‘The Woes of a Theatre Usher’.

Speaking after the winners were announced, Florence said: “I am absolutely ecstatic to have won the student prize.

Motivating

“It is encouraging to be able to take part in such an event and to receive recognition for it: ‘thank you’ to the judges for creating the student category.

“I also want to give a big ‘thank you’ to my journalism lecturer, Tom Collins, for motivating his students to submit their entries.”

Senior Lecturer Tom Collins, Acting Programme Director of Journalism Studies, in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, said: “We are really proud of what Florence has achieved.

“We don’t have any problem singing the praises of our students – they are talented – but it is great when their quality is recognised independently by some of the most respected writers in the business.”

The Ian Bell ‘New Writing’ competition was set up in memory of the journalist Ian Bell, who died in 2015, by his family and the Edinburgh branch of the National Union of Journalists, of which Ian was a member.

The awards were presented by Ian Bell’s widow, Mandy, and his son Sean.