The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers

Call Directions Website Contact the organisation

The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers While living in Manchester, Sadie and her husband Alex began helping disadvantaged children through various charities.

We aim to encourage a lifelong love of reading & writing through three annual competitions, workshops which include creative writing, comic drawing & oracy, plus writing mentorships.
'Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out'
Pam Allyn Established in 2015, the Portico Sadie Massey Awards (PSM Awards) aims to encourage a life-long love of reading and writing in young people from all backgrounds.

· * Reading and Writing Competitions: Book reviews and short stories – Open to all schools and young people aged 7 – 18 years: Free to enter

· * Art of the Book Award: Create a book using art & words to tell your story – Open to Pupil Referral Units and Schools and departments with Special Educational Needs in Greater Manchester aged 7 - 19 years: Free to enter

· * Creative writing workshops: Inspired by and unique to the Portico Library: Available to schools & centres in Greater Manchester. See more information on workshops and educators

· * Events: Pathways into Publishing Festival - part of the Manchester UNESCO City of Literature's Festival of Libraries - find out about the various routes into the book industries by meeting the experts - for aged 14 +
June 10 2023, 11 am - 4 pm, The Portico Library

The Awards are named after Glasgow-born Sadie Massey and her desire to spread a love of reading and writing. This desire to give opportunities to all young people is continued through the Portico Sadie Massey Awards. We work with Manchester’s most respected ambassadors of children’s and young adult’s writing, with a particular emphasis on exploring stories based in the North of England.

Teacher & Librarian Network Meeting To launch the Portico Sadie Massey Awards competitions!On Friday, 9th October, to co...
12/10/2026

Teacher & Librarian Network Meeting
To launch the Portico Sadie Massey Awards competitions!
On Friday, 9th October, to conincide with the opening of the 4 competitions, we held a Teacher and Librarian Network meeting at The Portico Library.

Nineteen guests were greeted with a glass of w**e or fruit juice and a gift bundle, including a copy of the 2026 winning anthology, a summary from the previous meeting’s questionnaire, the new Mentorship competition details and how to enter, details of the meeting’s presentation on Bookishness and of course, a competition flyer announcement.

Dr Debbie Challis gave an update on the exciting Portico Reunited Project and spoke about the basic housekeeping for the event, after which PSMA project organiser, Ruth Estevez welcomed and spoke about the four competitions and gave a brief summary on feedback and the date of the next meeting - 29th January, 2027. Please

email: [email protected] to book your place

This was followed by the presentation by our HE Innovation Fellow, Dr Susana Sanchez-Gonzalez, who shared her research on bookishness and explored what it takes to help children become Readers with a capital R. Drawing on her work across libraries and special collections, she reflected on how emotional connection, agency, choice, and identity shape lifelong reading habits.

Combining research with practical classroom strategies, the session invited the group to look beyond literacy outcomes and consider how schools can help young people develop not just reading skills, but a genuine, lasting, and proudly bookish relationship with books.

The session included an opportunity to view a selection of books from the historic collections about book-love and Bibliomania.

A discussion then opened up and as we ran out of time, we will continue the debate and sharing of ideas about bookishness at our meeting in January. (4.30 pm arrivals, event 5 - 6pm) We hope to see you there!

And keep checking out our News Section on the PSMAwards' website!

https://www.theportico.org.uk/portico-sadie-massey-awards-news

Photos from Marie Basting Author

MCRCityofLit Wigan Today Book Clubs in Schools Wilmslow High School Lancashire Telegraph First Story The Reading Agency

Want to join the Portico Time Capsule? Last chance!
29/09/2026

Want to join the Portico Time Capsule?

Last chance!

Again, we're keen to share news from organisations close to our hearts, and this study is for parents or guardians of 8-...
29/09/2026

Again, we're keen to share news from organisations close to our hearts, and this study is for parents or guardians of 8-15-year-olds.

Please take a look!

Lancashire Telegraph Lancashire Post The Reading Agency

We love sharing news from our friends, so please take a look at this and see how you can take part.Lancashire Telegraph ...
29/09/2026

We love sharing news from our friends, so please take a look at this and see how you can take part.

Lancashire Telegraph Lancashire Post Manchester Wire First Story The Reading Agency

24/09/2026

Celebrating more great news!!! 🥳

Our 4 competitions open 9th October 2026!Short story, book review, Art of the Book and Mentorship with The Writing Squad...
24/09/2026

Our 4 competitions open 9th October 2026!
Short story, book review, Art of the Book and Mentorship with The Writing Squad!

And we're announcing and celebrating the opening with a Teachers and Librarian Network Event
The Portico Library, Friday, 9th of October, 5 - 6 pm (arrive from 4.30 pm)

Email [email protected] to book your place

We’ll give a quick summary on this year’s activities and new plans for year 12 of the Portico Sadie Massey Awards with some key dates for the diaries. Pick up a free copy of the anthology Breathing In, Brathing Out, Short stories and Book Reviews of the Portico Sadie Massey Awards. We'll also have competition flyers for you to take.

Refreshments - w**e or juice and some nibbles

We are also very lucky to be able to offer a special presentation this time, and of course, a chance to look at some of the books from the collection.

In this presentation, our HE Innovation Fellow, Dr Susana Sanchez-Gonzalez, will share her research on bookishness and explore what it takes to help children become Readers with a capital R. Drawing on her work across libraries and special collections, she will reflect on how emotional connection, agency, choice, and identity shape lifelong reading habits. Combining research with practical classroom strategies, the session will invite teachers to look beyond literacy outcomes and consider how schools can help young people develop not just reading skills, but a genuine, lasting, and proudly bookish relationship with books. The session will also include an opportunity to view a selection of books from the historic collections about book-love and Bibliomania.

We look forward to seeing you, just email to book your place.

Please explore the website, checking out the links, listening to the videos for writing inspiration and read the winning reviews and stories in this year’s competitions. There are also videos about reading, books and much more on the Portico youtube channel. It’s all here!

https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEB&search_query=the+portico+sadie+massy+awards

https://www.theportico.org.uk/portico-sadie-massey-awards

The Portico Library The Reading Agency Lancashire Telegraph

The PSMAwards' year is almost a wrap!Last Thursday, 11th of June, we held this year's PSMAwards' presentation event at T...
18/06/2026

The PSMAwards' year is almost a wrap!

Last Thursday, 11th of June, we held this year's PSMAwards' presentation event at The Portico Library where we celebrated the winners and highly commended in this year’s Portico Sadie Massey Awards Reading and Writing Competitions.

Out of 440 entries, 8 winners and 8 highly commended from key stages 2,3,4 & 5 were invited to the Presentation event. 14 attended with their guests, meeting the judges, Curtis Jobling, Josh Silver, Matthew Cornford and Susan Brownrigg. MC Martin Griffin guided the proceeds and MBE Oliver Sykes spoke as the Special Guest.

The Portico Library’s Librarian, Dr Thom Keep welcomed everyone, a number of students read out their short story or book review and there were some extremely proud parents and families!

Other guests attending came from the Arts Council, the Chair of CILIP, Carnegie and the Kate Greenaway Medals, Manchester Metropolitan University’s English Department, First Story, Portico Library Trustees, the PSMAwards’ Group and one of the anthology’s two illustrators.

This year’s notebook design co-ordinated with the library’s Reunited Project and was also used as the cover for our first ever Anthology of Winners, titled, Breathing In, Breathing Out.

We thank all who came, from North Yorkshire to Buckinghamshire on a rainy Manchester afternoon, but there were only warm, sunny smiles in the building!

Photographs from this year's PSMA presentation event, are on the website - https://www.theportico.org.uk/portico-sadie-massey-awards-news

Next year's competitions open 9th October 2027
https://www.theportico.org.uk/portico-sadie-massey-awards

Professional photographs by Lucy Cartwright

Additional photographs by various contributors.

The Portico Library Manchester Histories Manchester Libraries Manchester Evening News MCRCityofLit Manchester Metropolitan University Susan Brownrigg author Susan Brownrigg Oli Sykes

More about the Reunited Project here: https://www.theportico.org.uk/reuniting

With many thanks to this year's PSMAwards' judges, Curtis Jobling, Susan Brownrigg, Josh Silver and Matthew Cornford.App...
17/06/2026

With many thanks to this year's PSMAwards' judges, Curtis Jobling, Susan Brownrigg, Josh Silver and Matthew Cornford.

Applause as always to resident MC, Martin Griffin.

And gratitude for the words of special guest, Oliver Sykes.

What a line up!

Featured in The Reading Room at The Portico Library.

Read more about them: https://www.theportico.org.uk/portico-sadie-massey-awards
on our News section for Oliver and Workshops and Educators for Martin!

Photograph by Lucy Cartwright

The Portico Library Manchester Libraries MCRCityofLit Manchester Histories Susan Brownrigg author Oli Sykes

Teachers and Librarians!A reminder that the Teacher and Librarian Network Meeting at the Portico Library, scheduled for ...
17/06/2026

Teachers and Librarians!

A reminder that the Teacher and Librarian Network Meeting at the Portico Library, scheduled for Friday, 19th of June is cancelled.

The new date is for the autumn term, Friday, 9th of October to coincide with the our four competitions opening. So, a very exciting date!

Please arrive from 4.30 pm, for 5 - 6 pm.

Collections Expert, Susana will be giving a presentation on looking at books in different ways and emotional connections to books, there will be an opportunity to look at some of the collection, we'll be letting you know about the competitions and open for questions and chats, plus there will be refreshments.

One not to miss!

Please RSVP to Ruth - [email protected]

Photo from this year's PSMA presentation event by Lucy Cartwright

The Portico Library Manchester Libraries Manchester Histories

Address

Manchester
M23HY

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+441612366785

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers:

Shortcuts

Share

Category