(L-R): Noëlle Manoni, Marie Wivenes;

Luxembourg's English-speaking publisher, Black Fountain Press, has announced the winners of its Young Voices Writing Competition.

The first prize goes to Noëlle Manoni, for her poem Farewell, a beautifully crafted piece of writing that mesmerises the reader with its original and emotional approach. The second prize has been awarded to Marie Wivenes, whose short story Shock impressively relates the aftermath of a bullying attack.

Three other works were selected by the jury: Gaspar Alves Gonçalo’s short story For Him, Safia Foti’s flash fiction A Negative and Phoebe Archer’s poem No. All five works will be published in a booklet.

The competition, aimed at encouraging young writers aged 16 to 19, was launched in October 2017. The response was overwhelming: 189 texts (poems, short stories, flash fiction, song lyrics) were sent in by 87 participants (72 girls, 15 boys). "The quality is astounding", said Jeff Thill, Publishing Director at Black Fountain Press, "it was tough choosing a winner among such versatility".

"It was also extremely interesting to see what topics young writers are interested in", added Anne-Marie Reuter, Editing Director. “We had the rare privilege of getting an insight into the imagination and reflection of young writers.”

All the winners have been notified and their work will be celebrated at Carré, Hollerich on Wednesday 28 March, Black Fountain Press' first anniversary.

Noëlle Manoni, 19, winner of the first prize: "Embracing the European culture with all its variety and multiplicity, I’ve always taken an eager interest in history, literature, writing, story-telling and languages. The poem Farewell was written in remembrance of a horse, called Amazonia, a former show-jumping mare which had a severe injury and was prematurely retired. She died because of her age, after I hoped she would find strength again during the summer holidays. Her story, but also the poem, depicts how we often struggle in vain in front of the unavoidable before we finally find peace and rest."

Marie Wivenes, 18, winner of the second prize: "I’ve always enjoyed making up stories, and I think that is how the passion of 'creating something' started. Making up stories is easy, yet writing them down is much harder as I've learned over the course of the years. That is also the process I went through for "Shock". The idea came out of nowhere, while I sat on the bus. It was a fleeting concept of a character that didn't know themselves or their life's story. I tweaked the idea and made it more literal than metaphorical, because I like to keep things simple and straightforward, and ta-da Stewart was born. As far as my personal life goes, I'm an avid reader and music fan."