SEAN Harrison took home the coveted Best Overall Writer title at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Jamaica Creative Writing Competition and Exhibition Awards Ceremony at the Blue Mountain Suite of The Knutsford Court Hotel, St Andrew on Tuesday.

“I’m ecstatic, I still can’t believe that I won,” Harrison told the Jamaica Observer.

Harrison was handed the prestigious award on the back of several strong pieces that netted him three gold and one silver medal. He took the gold medals for his poems The Captive Song, Summer Sun, and Keep Your Soul. The lone silver was for his fourth poem Who Are You. He will also receive a cash prize from sponsors and his work will join the many chosen entries in Jamaica Creative Writing Exhibition Tour that starts on August 7, ends on March 15, 2015 after visiting every parish library.

The Jamaica Observer’s Cecelia Campbell-Livingston received two bronze medals for her play Crossroads and short story The Cawna.

Winning the Jamaica Creative Writing Competition comes as a bright spot to Harrison, who quit his job a year ago to take up writing full time. This is his third year entering the contest.

“I would definitely recommend that budding writers enter the contest as the exposure it provides just canât be achieved by normal means,” he said.

Currently, Harrison has an E-book of poetry A Deeper Joy: Keeping Hope Alive in a Fallen World available online and hopes the accolades will spur sales and his writing career.