Every entry will be read by 2 members of an expert panel made up from members of the Institute of Genetic Medicine and the School of English at Newcastle University. This panel will make a shortlist of finalists’ entries from each age category which best meet the judging criteria.

The shortlist will be passed to the competition judges who will select a winning entry from each category. They may also identify some entries as ‘highly commended’.

Winning entries will receive written feedback on their story from the judges.

So who are the judges?

The organisers have appointed a panel of expert and highly regarded scientists and writers who will make the final selection of winning entries.

Dr Helen Limon is Writer in Residence at Seven Stories National Centre for Children’s Books and is working with the archive of the UK’s most widely read writers for children, Enid Blyton. She lives in Northumberland and teaches at Newcastle University. She has published a number of picture books, including the award winning My Mother is Troll. Her first novel for children, Om Shanti, Babe (Frances Lincoln, 2012), won the Diverse Voices Award.

Professor Kate Bushby is both a doctor and a researcher, working for Newcastle University and the NHS, and based at the Centre for Life. Katie is an expert in molecular genetics, leading a team of researchers, and has helped to advise doctors around the world on the best ways to care for people with genetic muscle diseases. Her published work in this field is recognized as world leading.

William Fiennes was the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 2003 and is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room. On publication in 2009, The Music Room was called “a small masterpiece” (Sunday Telegraph), “a brilliant work” (Irish Times), “completely uplifting” (Metro) and “a beautiful and fortifying book, even a great one” (Daily Telegraph). William is Director and co-founder of the charity First Story, which supports creativity and literacy in challenging secondary schools. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

Two further judges to be confirmed very soon…