04 Homage to Orwell


Te winner of the NUJ/Orwell Society Young Writers of 2023 has ruffled Welsh feathers


G


wenno Robinson knew that her prize-winning column from the NUJ/ Orwell Society Young Journalist competition


could be viewed as provocative – that is, of course, one of the aims of a columnist. She discovered just how much so


aſter Yesterday’s Past, Tomorrow’s Future was published by Nation. Cymru. “Tere was a definite backlash,” she said of the below-line comments and on Twiter – some positive but many people were quick to take offence. “Some of it was nasty,” she added. “It was very interesting to see how it caused such controversy. I knew it was a sensitive issue and, in a way, it backed what I was saying in my article, which was that Wales is no longer struggling to survive, but fighting to be an ambitious, innovative, and inclusive nation and that clinging to the ‘britle relics’ of the past will only prevent it from achieving those aims. I wasn’t saying we should forget history.” When Gwenno moved into her


fresher’s student room in Cambridge,


the first thing she did was hang a Welsh flag on the wall. Being away from her Welsh rural home suddenly made her think about her national identity. It is an issue she has explored since, and she has filmed three Welsh Cambridge students asking how they celebrated their Welsh identity. She has always been interested


in creative writing and active in cultural festivals such as the Eisteddfod. It was a natural step to join the university newspaper, Varsity. Here she has tacked numerous subjects, from Mat Hancock’s performance on I’m a Celebrity …, University Challenge, where to go for a good night out, to dating (or not) in Cambridge. She is studying Human, Social and


Political Sciences, with a focus on politics and international


relations. It was as part of this course that she developed the ideas that were used in her NUJ/Orwell prize entry. Gwenno enjoys the long-form essay rather than news reporting and she was thrilled to see former Guardian journalist, Gary Younge,


was on the judging panel. She is a huge fan and his book Who Are We?, which explores “identity” in politics, resonated with her. George Orwell’s Notes on Nationalism, which Gwenno had read before going to university, was also an influence, and his rules on writing have been a guide, she says. “My first language is Welsh, so it has been useful for my journalistic writing to learn how to strip down everything, without using complicated phrases, to get messages across.” Gwenno intends to put her cash


prize towards a film camera and use it to fund work experience opportunities this summer – travelling to and from work can be expensive from where she lives in Wales. She has a place on the Institute of Wales’s magazine lined up and hopes to get experience with a film production company. Gwenno, as were the other winners, was also given a free NUJ student membership. Te runner-up was Kathryn Wheeler, Keele University graduate, features editor, Happiful. Highly commended were Fergal Jeffreys and Freya Graham. Winner of the review category was Joshua Korber Hoffman and the runner-up was Tomas Gilhooly, they both studied at Cambridge. For more details go to the Orwell Society website.


AWARD


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