Hannah's short story wins big at student media awards

HANNAH Kingston from Clonakilty had plenty to smile about at the recent KBC National Student Media Awards held in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. 

The 21-year-old final year student of English and Psychology at UCC walked away with the award for ‘Short Story of the Year’ for her piece of work called ‘Amelia.’

‘It was brilliant to win the award as I literally wrote it just before the deadline and it’s an unpublished piece too, and it will be great to have on my CV once I finish college,’ Hannah told The Southern Star.

‘Amelia is about a society that doesn’t let you be what you want to be and closely mirrors the one in which we live in today. It’s about relationships with others and with ourselves.’

As deputy editor and chief of the student magazine Motley, Hannah was also delighted that their magazine won nine out of their 15 nominations. 

Some of their award winners included Robert O’Sullivan for Colour Writer of the Year, Robert Byrne for Blog/Vlog of the Year, Claire Fox for Features Writer of the Year/Arts & Pop Culture and Ellen Desmond for Editor of the Year.

The magazine also beat other universities to scoop the award for Magazine of the Year and the official monthly magazine in UCC has been very prominent in these awards since its launch in 2006.

‘It was a fantastic night and especially that our magazine walked away with so many awards,’ added Hannah. The former Sacred Heart Secondary School student is preparing for final exams but plans to go on to study for a Masters in Journalism in DCU.

Known as the ‘Smedias’, the awards provide a platform to showcase the talent and hard work of student journalists.