A Year 9 student from Kettering Science Academy has received high praise from author Bali Rai for her short story. 

In March, Leicester author Bali Rai visited the Academy as part of KSA’s Book Week and he launched a short story writing competition for students to enter.

Mr Rai read through all the entries and announced Illaria Knibb as the winner for her short story of a modern teen romance with an unexpected twist. 

Mr Rai said: “Illaria’s story was far and away the best one. The style, the plotting, the structure - everything tells me that this writer has serious talent. This is more than just good - it is an excellent effort, despite one or two minor editorial points. Superb!”

He added: “Please thank all the students for their efforts. Great stories take time and patience, and a great editorial eye. None of the runners-up should feel bad because the plot lines are fine. It's just the execution that suffers and that is something that can be taught. Illaria's is genuinely a cut above, however. Just wow!”

Illaria won a signed copy of Mr Rai’s Secrets book and a £5 book voucher.

She said: “I am really pleased to have won, it’s amazing and I am ecstatic. I spent ages on the story to get it right and edited it down from it being originally 10 pages to the 6 pages it had to be. I worked on it for over a week for two hours at a time.”

Click here to read Illaria’s short story entitled: ’11.53’.

Runners up were announced as KSA Year 7 students -
Tom Smith – Click here to read his short story – Bullet
Esme Bayliss – Click here to read - Life is Small