A BOURNEMOUTH student has won big at the Young Writer award. 

Winner Valerija Savicka joined Rachel Cusk, this year's winner of the Goldsmiths Prize, at an awards ceremony in London.  

The Young Writer competition, run by Goldsmiths, University of London, aims to find the next generation of writing talent.  

With a £1,000 prize at stake the competition is open to young people between the ages of 16 to 18 studying at school or college.    

Valerija, 17 and from The Bishop of Winchester Academy in Bournemouth, admitted that she did not expect to be shortlisted for the prize, let alone to win. 

She said: “I couldn't even believe it, it was like a dream, and I think I even began to cry from how happy I was.”  

“I entered the competition thinking that it would be just a nice opportunity to practise writing skills and nothing much.  

“Especially because I didn't think my English was good enough for serious writing as I came to live in England only four years ago.”  

Dr Livia Franchini, lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, said: "This inventive, formally daring story is experimental in the truest sense, tackling questions about humanity and the natural world through an unassuming yet philosophical non-human lens."