A LECTURER and his student are competing for the same prize after both being nominated for a prestigious international writing award.

Martin Bedford, who teaches creative writing, and student Liz Flanagan are part of this year’s nominations for the 2017 Carnegie Medal - the greatest accolade available to children’s writers in the world.

Martyn, who is Liz’s supervisor at Leeds Trinity University in Horsforth, was nominated for his latest teen novel Twenty Questions for Gloria, whilst Liz was selected for Eden Summer, which was a novel written for her Creative Writing PhD.

"I’m absolutely thrilled and delighted that Eden Summer has been nominated," said Liz. "The Carnegie Medal is by far the most prestigious award in the children's book world, so to be nominated is such a huge honour. What makes it even more special is that the 2017 nominations include many of my favourite books from this year, really extraordinary books, so I'm over the moon to have my novel listed alongside them."

The annually awarded Carnegie Medal is unique in that the titles are chosen solely by library professionals, for 'outstanding literary quality'.

Liz’s entry, Eden Summer, is a young adult novel about a girl called Jess who turns up at school to learn that her best friend, Eden, has gone missing. As Jess searches for Eden, the reader learns through flashbacks what terrible events both girls have experienced.

"The inspiration for the story came partly from my beautiful home town of Hebden Bridge, where the book is set. But I was also very interested in thinking about friendship and resilience, and how we survive difficult things," said Liz.

"It's a strange and wonderful thing to be up for the same award as Martyn with my first novel. It also speaks very highly of the excellent calibre of the Creative Writing department at Leeds Trinity, which is attracting writers working in a wide variety of literary genres. The supervision for my PhD has been really fantastic, and I can't praise the Creative Writing department highly enough."

Martyn, an award-winning novelist who has been nominated three times for the Carnegie Medal, said: "It's smashing for Liz and I to be in contention for the same prize - I'm not sure a debut novelist and her PhD supervisor have ever been nominated together for such a prestigious award. It's a real honour for both of us and for Leeds Trinity. I've loved working with Liz on Eden Summer and am delighted to see it receiving the recognition it deserves."

Martyn's book, Twenty Questions for Gloria, is the story of a bored and restless teenage girl who falls for the renegade new boy at school and decides to go on the run with him. But their adventure of a lifetime goes horribly wrong and only one of them makes it home.

"It's about the urge many teenagers have to push boundaries and break rules, and the risks that two young people in love are prepared to take to be together when the world seems to be set against them," said Martyn.

The current list of nominees will be shortened further in March 2017 before the winner is announced in June.