The Carol Trewin Young Food Writers Award 2012 Aspiring young writers under the age of 30 who are residents of or connected with Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol or Bath are invited to write and submit 500 words on why food and drink in the West Country is important or important to you. The deadline for submissions is March 1st, 2012. The organisers of the Award, James Crowden, writer and publisher, and Marc Millon, journalist, author and new media specialist, will carefully assess all the submissions. From the mini-essays submitted, a shortlist of the six most promising writers will be selected. A key feature of the Award is that the shortlisted young writers will be invited to participate in a special full-day professional Food and Drink Writing Workshop that will include talks and practical writing workshops with professional food and drink writers, including James and Marc. The aim is to assist the young writers to gain an overview of the breadth of food and drink writing, broaden their vision, as well as develop the craft of effective writing for different media. After the Workshop, the hard work begins: each shortlisted young writer is next invited to research and write an article of 1500 words on a food and/or drink story of their choice. From these submitted articles, a panel of distinguished judges will select a winner. There will be a cash prize to the winner, provided by Flagon Press, publisher of “The Devon Food Book”. The winning submissions will be published in the Western Morning News. Carol Trewin interviewing Rick Stein