Announcing the winner of the Floella Benjamin Trophy Competition

We are very pleased to announce that Helen Bartlett, who writes as Ella Cook, has won our open competition, themed ‘Children are our future.’ Ella is 35, lives in Warwickshire and is a new SWWJ member, having joined us earlier this year. She works for a large children’s services provider, writing funding applications to help deliver services to families and children in need, but also writes fiction, with two completed novels awaiting submission to agents and publishers. Ella says that writing means the world to her. It has given her a career she loves, introduced her to her husband and helped her through some very hard times. Our President, Baroness Benjamin, who judged the competition, described Ella’s entry as ‘an original, compelling, engaging and emotional read.’ Congratulations to Ella. You can read her winning story, ‘A Monologue from a Child in Care – Boxes and Labels’ here.