The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced the winners of the 2019 Allen Wright Award and Fringe Young Writers Award. The Allen Wright Award recognises the best Fringe feature writer and best Fringe reviewer under the age of 30, while the Fringe Young Writer’s Award is awarded to the best Fringe review by a journalist aged 16-21 years old.
In the Allen Wright Award reviews category, Deborah Chu was announced as the winner for her review of The Claim. Katie Hawthorne was named as the winner of the features category for her interview with comedian Jen Brister, with a commendation being awarded to Tim Bano for his feature about production company Spiegelworld. The winner in each Allen Wright Award category will receive £600, with £300 awarded for a commendation.
The Fringe Young Writers Award was awarded to Ariane Branigan for her review of Matt Parker: Humble Pi. She will receive mentoring from arts writers at The Scotsman and paid work as part of the paper’s review team at the 2020 Fringe.
Winners were selected by a judging panel that included Arusa Qureshi (Editor of The List), Neil Cooper (Theatre Critic at The Herald), Robert Peacock (Editor of The Wee Review), Amy Taylor (Media and Marketing Adviser at Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and former Theatre editor of The Skinny) and Oliver Davies (Head of Marketing and Development, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society).
Allen Wright Award reviews category winner Deborah Chu said: “It's an incredible honour to be chosen as a winner of the Allen Wright Award this year. August is such an intense, exciting month; it's been an amazing privilege to share in it with such a stellar class of writers, and to contribute to the discourse around art and its ability to move us in so many different ways.”
Allen Wright Award features category winner Katie Hawthorne said: “I am so excited and grateful to be chosen as one of the winners of the Allen Wright Award this year. It is a real privilege to be able to cover the Fringe and I owe a massive thank you to the team at Fest for all their support and encouragement. Huge thanks to Jen Brister, too. She is a brilliant comedian and a joy to interview - she made my job very easy!”
Fringe Young Writers Award recipient Ariane Branigan said: "I'm delighted to have been chosen for the Fringe Young Writers Award, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity. I'm so excited to be mentored by the Scotsman – I absolutely love reviewing, and I can't wait to see where this takes me.”
