A Thaxted teenager is to have her talent nurtured through a new literary scheme to promote young writers.

Olivia Maxwell, 19, has been selected from dozens of young hopefuls to take part in the I’m A StoryTeller mentoring scheme, which aims to nurture the next generation of literary talent.

“I’m deeply honoured to be chosen,” said Olivia, who took part in her first master-class of the program last week.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be mentored by big names in the literary world and will give me and my fellow mentees a huge boost to our confidence and development of our short story writing, and potential of where we can take our literary careers.”

Olivia, who is in her first year studying English literature at Oxford University, will be mentored by leading literary agent Becky Thomas, manager of the award-winning spoken word poet and playwright Kate Tempest, and develop her first short story by the end of April.

The work of Olivia and her two fellow mentees chosen for the project will then be unveiled later this year at new literary venue LIBRARY in Covent Garden.

Others supporting the mentoring scheme include Game of Thrones Maisie Williams, best-selling author Danny Wallace, along with award-winning children’s authors Laura Dockrill and Alice Oseman.

YOUYOU Mentoring is a London-based non-profit scheme founded in 2010, which helps aspiring teenagers and young adults aged 17-21 to develop their craft through mentoring from experienced professionals. For more information on the organisation go to youyoumentoring.co.uk.