A Whitehaven author is to travel to San Francisco after winning a prestigious writing award.

Emma McGordon, 35, was this week handed the Julia Darling Travel Fellowship which supports writers who live in the north of England.

A published poet and playwright, she will be working on a new collection of poems while volunteering at the famous Frameline Film Festival in the American city.

Emma said: “I am delighted to have been awarded the fellowship. It will enable me to start working on a new project that will begin with a journey to San Francisco.

“As well as the financial benefit, an award like this also gives me a huge sense of recognition as a writer and the confidence to keep producing.”

Judges at The Julie Darling Travel Fellowship, said Emma’s work was “buzzing with energy and enthusiasm” and there was “a fearlessness about this writer”.

Emma was awarded a Young Writer of the Year Award at the Northern Writers Awards and was shortlisted for Cumbria Writer for the Year in 2015.

She has previously studied under poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy at the Manchester School of Writing, was shortlisted for the Rosamund Prize and highly commended for the University Women in the Arts awards.

On her return from San Francisco, Emma will be taking up a residency in Cornwall before performing in her new play at Rosehill Theatre, where she is an associate artist, later this year.

She said: “Rosehill has been extremely supportive towards me, and my play will hopefully be staged in November.

“It is semi-autobiographical and its working title is Between the Mountains and the Sea.”