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Northern Writers' Award winners
NORTHERN WRITERS' AWARDS: 2000
Northern Writer of the Year Award
Chaz Brenchley
Time to Write Awards
Margaret Wilkinson, Andrew Waterhouse, SJ Litherland
Northern Promise Awards
Angela Readman, Ian Horn and Shauna Mackay
NORTHERN WRITERS' AWARDS: 2001
The judges for this year's awards were, for the Time to Write and
Northern Promise Awards, novelists Wendy Robertson and Chaz Brenchley
(Northern Writer of the Year 2000) and poet Ian Duhig (Northern
Literary Fellow). The guest judge for the Northern Writer of the Year
2001 was poet and novelist Helen Dunmore.
Northern Writer of the Year Award
An award of £8,000 was awarded to Tyneside-based poet Sean O'Brien to
work on a new version of Dante’s Inferno, commissioned by Picador.
Time to Write Awards
An award of £2,000 to Cumbrian novelist John Murray to work on a new
novel, Jazz etc, which was subsequently long-listed for the Man Booker
Prize 2003.
An award of £2,000 to Cumbria-based children’s writer Janni Howker to work on a new collection of stories for young people.
An award of £2,000 to North Tyneside-based writer Peter Mortimer to
complete a new work, Exile - 100 Days on Holy Island, a book based on
his recent experiences on the island.
An award of £2,000 to County Durham-based author Charles Fernyhough to complete a new novel, his third.
Northern Promise Awards
An awards package worth £1,500 to Newcastle-based poet Anna Woodford
which will aim to develop her writing career via training and support.
An awards package worth £1,500 to Cumbrian poet Jacob Polley which will
aim to support the development of his new collection of poetry.
An award of £1,000 to Cumbrian novelist Martin Hetherington to support
the development of his first novel Wideboys towards publication.
The following writers will also be supported via mentoring programmes
to develop their work: Heather Young, a Northumbrian writer, will
receive support to develop her fiction writing and County Durham writer
Pru Kitching will work with a writing mentor to develop a poetic novel.
NORTHERN WRITERS' AWARDS: 2002
Eleven writers from the region benefited from cash awards, mentoring
and support to attend development courses via the 2002 Northern
Writers’ Awards. The awards, each worth £2,000, will allow the
following writers to develop their work towards publication.
Time to Write Awards
Time to Write Awards were given to Richard Caddell (Durham), Chrissie
Glazebrook (Newcastle) and Carol Clewlow (North Tyneside). These awards
will help them to buy the time to complete works in progress.
Northern Promise Awards
Northern Promise Awards, which aim to support writers to complete first
works of poetry and fiction, were awarded to Barrie Darke (North
Tyneside), Deborah Bruce (Newcastle), Christine Powell (County Durham),
Joanna Boulter (County Durham), Victoria Bennett (Windermere), Marlynn
Rosario (North Tyneside), Eileen Jennison (County Durham) and Kathleen
Kenny (Newcastle).
The judges for 2002, Sean O’Brien and Margaret Wilkinson, were very
impressed by the range of new fiction and poetry that was submitted for
the awards and New Writing North was delighted that so many awards went
to up-and-coming writers.
The Waterhouse Award
The poet Andrew Waterhouse died in October 2001. He was a poet of
enormous promise whose work had just started to garner great acclaim
following the success of his first collection In (Rialto), which won
the Waterstones/Forward First Collection prize. He also received a
Northern Writers’ Award in 2000.
Andrew's tragic death shocked a community of writers who looked to him
both as friend and rising star. In 2002 New Writing North decided to
create a special award in Andrew’s memory. The Waterhouse Award will be
given to one of the winning poets from each year of the Northern
Writers’ Awards. Victoria Bennett was the first winner of this award in
2002.
NORTHERN WRITERS' AWARDS: 2003
The judges for the awards this year were the novelist Wendy Robertson,
the poet Andy Croft and Literature Officer for Cumbrian County Council,
Susan Tranter.
Time to Write Awards
Maureen Almond received £3,000 to work on a new collection of poetry
inspired by life below the Railway in Thornaby in the Tees Valley.
Maureen is well known as a writer and community arts worker in the Tees
Valley where she has undertaken recent Year of the Artist residencies
and worked as a writer in schools. Maureen is a graduate of the MA in
Writing Poetry at Newcastle University. She lives in Yarm.
Bob Beagrie received £3,000 to work on the completion of a long poem
entitled Endeavour, based on Captain Cook’s first voyage. The poem will
be premiered at the Captain Cook Maritime Festival on Teesside later in
2003. Bob is well known as the former Literature Development Officer
for Cleveland Arts where his work helped to change the face of
literature in the Tees Valey. Bob Beagrie lives in Middlesbrough.
Kitty Fitzgerald received £3,000 to work on the completion of her novel
in progress, Pigtopia. Kitty has received acclaim as both a novelist
and a playwright. Her recent novel Small Acts of Treachery was
nominated for the Sunday Independent Irish Novel of the Year Award.
Kitty Fitzgerald lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.
John Murray received £3,000 to work on Murphy’s Favourite Channels, a
new novel set in West Cumbria. John is perhaps the best-kept fictional
secret in Cumbria. Since the publication of Reiver Blues he has had a
long and productive relationship with Flambard Press, an independent
publisher based in Northumberland. In 2000 John received a Northern
Writers’ Award for £2,000 to complete his novel Jazz which will be
published in June this year by Flambard.
Northern Promise Awards
Peter Bromley received an award package of £2,000 to help him develop
his short stories towards a novel via mentoring support and paid time
to write. When not writing Peter is the Regional Director of English
Heritage in the North East. Peter Bromley lives in Alnwick,
Northumberland.
Avril Joy recieved an awards package of £2,000 to develop her first
novel The Orchid House towards completion via support from a writing
mentor. Avril currently works as Education Manager at HMP Low Newton
Women's Prison in Durham. She lives in Bishop Auckland.
Marilyn Carol Longstaff received development support of £2000 to
develop her poems towards a full collection. She will work with an
established writer via a mentoring programme. Marilyn Longstaff lives
in Darlington where she is a co-ordinator of the VANE Women writing
collective.
Janine Langley Wood received £2000 to aid the development of her novel
Kindred Spirits via mentoring with an established writer and a cash
award. Janine is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at the
University of Northumbria. She lives in Whitley Bay.
Diane Simpson received a cash award of £500 to buy her some time to
write away from her work as a medical secretary. She will work to
develop her first novel The Sugar Accounts which is set in the 18th
Century in Jamacia. Diane Simpson lives in Darlington.
Peter J Walters received an awards package of £2,000 to continue work
on his novel Multi-Drop. He will develop the novel via a mentoring
programme with an established writer and paid time to write. He lives
in Bishop Auckland.
The Waterhouse Award 2003
This award is inspired by the life and work of Andrew Waterhouse, who
himself lived in and was inspired by Northumbria. The award aims to
give special support to a poet whose work shows great promise. This
year the award will be given to Joan Hewitt. She will receive £2,000 to
develop her first collection of poetry towards publication via
mentoring support. She lives in Tynemouth.
The Northern Young Writer of the Year Award 2003
This is a new award that we gave this year for the first time. The
award was given to the most outstanding young writer to emerge from the
Northern Young Writer’s Competition that ran in 2002. This
year the award was given this year to the young poet Emma McGordon who
comes from Whitehaven in Cumbria.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS: 2004
On 24 March 2004 New Writing North awarded £20,500 to northern writers
to support the development of their novels and poetry
collections. The awards this year were judged by Jacob Polley and
Kitty Fitzgerald.
Time to Write Awards
Ann Coburn
Children’s novelist Ann Coburn was born and brought up in the north
east. After time spent away she returned to live in Berwick upon Tweed
in 1993 and to follow her plan of working as a full-time writer. Much
of her work as a writer has been inspired by the history, landscape and
mythology of the region. She has published seven books for children,
including The Borderlands Sequence, a four book series for 9-12
year-olds, Welcome to the Real World and The Granite Beast. An award of
£5,000 will support work on her current novel, Argents Way (Random
House).
Rebecca Jenkins
Biographer and novelist Rebecca Jenkins moved to the north east in 1984
to work as general assistant to her father, David Jenkins, who was then
Bishop of Durham. Since his retirement she has continued to work
closely with him and has recently collaborated on his autobiography,
The Calling of A Cuckoo. A Reluctant Celebrity, her biography of 19th
century actress, writer and traveller Fanny Kemble, will be published
in 2005 by Simon and Schuster UK. She is currently working on a series
of books about a Regency detective, FR Jarrett, whose adventures take
place in the north east in the early 1800s. The first book in the
series, The Duke’s Agent, was published in 1997. An award of £2,000
will help to support her work on the next FR Jarrett novel.
Peter Bennet
Poet Peter Bennet lives in Bellingham in Northumberland in a house
which was once occupied by the ballad writer James Armstrong, author of
the Wild Hills o' Wanney. His first poem, Redundant Steelmen Learning
to Draw, appeared in Stand in 1982 when he was forty years old. He has
had a long involvement with poetry in the region, from co-programming
events at Morden Tower to working as associate editor of Other Poetry.
He has a long publication record, which includes the collections
Sky-riding (Peterloo), All the Real, The Long Pack (Flambard) and Ha-Ha
(Smith Doorstop). A selection of his work, Apokatastesis: New and
Collected Poems, will be published by Flambard in 2005. An award of
£5,000 will help support the development of his new collection of
poetry, The Sally Garden.
Northern Promise Awards
Beda Higgins
Newcastle-based Beda Higgins currently works as a part-time practice
nurse. An award of £1,000 will enable her to develop her first novel,
Lucky Lou. The story follows the life of a dysfunctional Anglo-Irish
family, seen through the eyes of the daughter. In February 2004 the
novel synopsis was short-listed for the Lit Idol promotion at the
London Book Fair.
Valerie Laws
Whitley Bay-based writer Valerie Laws has published poetry –
Moonbathing (Peterloo Poets) and may be familiar to many as the author
of the recent play Hadaway – The Making of a Writer, which premiered as
part of the recent festival to celebrate his work. Valerie received
international attention in 2003 as the author of Quantum Sheep, a
project that merged poetry, sheep and quantum mechanics on a farm in
Northumberland. She receives an award of £1,000 to develop her first
novel, psychological literary thriller The Rotting Spot.
Alice de Smith
Newcastle-based Alice de Smith works as a freelance travel and feature
writer and in the course of her work has visited over 50 countries. In
1992 she was the winner of the Cosmopolitan Journalism Contest. She
receives an award of £2,000 to develop her first novel, a comic crime
tale set in Newcastle. Pet Noir is the story of a missing artist, a
murdered actor and a Jack Russell terrier.
Fiona Ritchie Walker
In 2005 Iron Press will publish Fiona Ritchie Walker’s first full
collection of poetry. She has lived in the region since the early 90s
and currently works for the fair trade company Traidcraft. An award of
£1,000 will enable her to undertake a period of sustained work on her
new collection.
Alistair Robinson
His home town of Whitburn inspired many of the poems in Alistair
Robinson’s first collection of poetry, South of Souter. He hopes to use
his award of £1,000 to develop a new collection, Stereograms of the
Dead. He has been writing since his teens but his work accelerated
after a poet in residence came to work at the Sunderland Echo, where he
works as a journalist.
The Andrew Waterhouse Award 2004
Paul Batchelor
Ashington-born poet Paul Batchelor currently works in the Northern
Poetry Library in Morpeth. Paul, who is 27, recently completed an MA in
Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he studied
with the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. In 2003 he received a Gregory
Award (a national award for young poets under the age of 35) from the
Poetry Society. His poems have been published by a wide variety of
literary magazines. His £2,000 award will support him while he works on
bringing together a full collection of poetry.
The Northern Young Writer of the Year
Dhruv Adam Sookhoo
This year an award of £500 will support the young Gateshead poet Dhruv
Adam Sookhoo to develop his work. Dhruv is 19 and currently studying to
be an architect at Newcastle University. He is working on a collection
of poetry, Homecomings. Through his award he will receive support to
develop the collection towards publication.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS: 2005
On 10 April 2005, New Writing North awarded £24,500 to north east
writers to support the development of their novels and poetry
collections.
Time To Write Awards
Chaz Brenchley
Chaz is a novelist who has lived in Newcastle for 25 years. He is theauthor of nine thrillers, most recently Shelter, and a major fantasy
series, The Books of Outremer, based on the world of the Crusades. A
winner of the British Fantasy Award, he has also published three books
for children and more than 500 short stories in various genres. He was
Northern Writer of the Year in 2000. An award of £3,000 will support him to work on a new linked series of novellas, Confidence.
Peter Armstrong
Peter is a poet who lives in Stocksfield in Northumberland. He works
for the NHS as a cognitive behavioural therapist and clinical teacher.
He has published two collections of poetry with Picador, The
Red-Funnelled Boat (1998) and The Capital of Nowhere (2003), which was
a Poetry Society Recommendation. His work also features in a number of
anthologies including The Firebox (editor Sean O’Brien, Picador, 1998)
and Ways with Words (editors Jo Shapcott and Don Paterson, Picador,
1999). An award of £3,000 will support him to work on two new
collections: Madame Noire and Breakfast at the Fishermen’s Mission
(both working titles).
Sue Frost
Sue is a journalist and novelist who lives and works in Whitley Bay,
her home for 25 years. Aside from writing, she works part-time as the
press adviser to the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. She has published
two novels, Redeem the Time and The Language of Nightingales, and is
currently completing her third, The View from the Villa Helena. An
award of £3,000 will support her to develop her novel in progress,
Salt, which is a departure from previous work in both style and content.
Northern Promise Awards
Paul Bodie
Paul has lived in Newcastle upon Tyne for eight years. He has never had
any work published but has been developing his writing by attending
writing workshops and events on Tyneside. His award of £1,500 will
support him to complete his first novel, Mugs.
Mark Hindle
Mark lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he works as a bookseller in
Waterstone's and is studying for an MA in creative writing at
Northumbria University. His short story, The Bankruptcy of Phillip H
Stone, was a runner-up in the New Writing North/The Journal Fresh
Fiction short story competition in 2004. An award of £1,500 will
support him to complete his first novel.
Nell Mcgrath
Nell lives in Cramlington in Northumberland. In 2003 she completed the
MA in creative writing at Northumbria University. That same year she
also won a national short story competition jointly organised by Marie
Claire magazine, Ottakar's and Virago. An award of £1,500 will support
her to develop her first novel, Story Library of the Saints, towards
publication.
Anne Ryland
Anne lives in Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland and works as a tutor
in adult education. She started writing poetry ten years ago and in
2002 gained an MA in writing poetry at Newcastle University. Over 100
of her poems have been published in magazines and anthologies. An award
of £1,500 will support her to develop a new collection of poems.
Dan Smith
Dan lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He spent the first 18 years of his
life travelling around the world following his father's work in
Africa, South America and the far east. He wrote his first collection
of short stories in 1986 when he was 16. He is a graduate of the
MA in creative writing at Northumbria University. An award of £1,500
will support him to work on his novel, Dry Season, which is set in Brazil.
Maurice Suckling
Maurice lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he works as a freelance
scriptwriter in the computer games industry. He has written the scripts
for four best-selling games, two of which have won interactive BAFTAs.
An award of £1,500 will support him to develop his first published
collection of short stories, Photocopies of Heaven.
Northern Promise Support Bursaries
This year, the award judges felt that there were two writers who were
deserving of developmental support. Two writers will each receive £500
to support them to attend a residential writing course with the Arvon
Foundation. The two writers are:
Anna Mason
Anna lives in Darlington, where she works as a care assistant. After
studying English at Sheffield Hallam University she travelled to
Taiwan, where she worked as an English teacher. In 2002, she moved to
London, where she worked as a glamour model and as a dancer at
Stringfellows. Her novel, Papillion 7, is based on her experiences of
working in Paris and is based around the lives of six strippers, or
‘papillions’.
Yvette Hawkins
Yvette lives in Newcastle upon Tyne and is studying fine art at
Newcastle University. She began writing last year when she was studying
textile design at Glasgow School of Art. Her bursary will support her
to develop her poetry.
The Andrew Waterhouse Award 2005
Elliott Kerrigan
Elliott Kerrigan lives in Cramlington in Northumberland. He studied English and
film at the University of Northumbria and then went on to study film
and video production at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, where
he wrote and directed a short film which featured Sir Ian McKellen. He
currently has a feature film script in development with Northern Film
and Media. His award of £1,500 will support him to develop his first
collection of poetry.
The Andrea Badenoch Award
Marion Husband
Marion has written stories since she was a child but began writing
seriously in 1992 when she attended a writing course. Her first
collection of stories, Three Little Deaths, was published by Teesside
based Mudfog Press in 1998 and since then her fiction has been
published in various anthologies. A collection of poetry about her
father and her childhood, Service, was published by Mudfog in 2003. In
July of this year her first novel, The Boy I Love, will be published by
Accent Press. The award will support her to develop her new novel, Paper
Moon, towards publication.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS 2006
On 9 April 2006, New Writing North awarded £27,000 to North East
writers to support the development of their novels and poetry
collections.
The judges for the awards this year were novelist Paul Magrs and poet
and current North East Literary Fellow Colette Bryce. The judging
process was chaired by New Writing North director Claire Malcolm.
TIME TO WRITE AWARDS
This award scheme allows writers to buy time away from other work and
financial pressures for reasonable lengths of time so that they can
complete books that are already in progress. To qualify for the awards,
writers must have a strong track record of publication and be in the
middle of progressing work that is likely to be published.
This year, three awards were given:
Barbara Gamble
Born in Belfast, Barbara worked in London as a journalist for several
years before taking a year out to live in the Pyrenees. She moved to
Teesside in 1979 and gave up journalism to start writing novels. She
has been writing in between jobs and family for two decades. Her first
novel, Out of Season, was published in 1984 and her second, Partial
Recoveries, two years later. Since then she has worked as a creative
writer with young offenders in Durham and – for the past 16 years – as
a media and film teacher at a Teesside college. She has been given an
award of £10,000 to support the development of her new novel,
Stargazing.
Celia Bryce
Celia Bryce was born in Jarrow. She is a singer and former nurse.
Now living in Tynemouth she works within the community and schools on
various writing projects. Since 1995 she has written for commercial and
literary publications as well as for radio. She was a winner in the
2000 Fish Prize and in 2003 won the Richard Imison Award for a first
radio play for The Skategrinder. Her collection of short stories,
Headlines and Other Growing Pains, was published by Biscuit in 2005.
Her award of £4,000 will support her to complete a children’s novel,
Freddie’s Pitch.
Valerie Laws
Valerie is a native North Easterner living in Whitley Bay. Her second
poetry collection Quantum Sheep (Peterloo Poetry) will be out shortly.
She is also a produced playwright. In 2004 she received a Northern
Promise award from New Writing North to work on her crime novel and has
just found an agent to represent the book. Her award of £2,000 will
support her to undertake a new project based around death from a
scientific/forensic perspective, which she is undertaking at the Gordon
Pathology Museum in London.
NORTHERN PROMISE AWARDS
Northern Promise Awards are given to writers who have not yet received
full publication but whose work the judges feel shows great potential.
New Writing North will work with all the winners to help them move
towards publication of their work.
This year, two awards were given:
Tess Hudson
Having lived in London for most of her life, Tess moved to Newcastle a
couple of years ago and completed the MA in creative writing at
Newcastle University. She started writing seriously about ten years ago
and gained a few successes which spurred her on such as the Women In
Film and Television’s ‘Write Time’ competition for screenwriting and
The London Writer’s competition. She has also written for TV and radio.
Her award of £2,000 will support her to work on a new collection of
short stories.
Carol McGuigan
Carol lives in Byker and also works as an actor and director. She has
been writing for ten years, initially as a dramatist, writing for Radio
4 and for theatre. Two years ago she began writing prose and has had
short stories published in Mslexia and in two anthologies. Born in
Sunderland, she emigrated with her family at 13 to South Africa, where
she spent the rest of her teens. This experience informed her first
play, Inside Uitlander. Now she revisits this material in her first
novel, How The Eye Works, for which she has won a £2,000 award.
THE ANDREW WATERHOUSE AWARD
Every year we make a special award in the Northern Promise category in
honour of the late poet Andrew Waterhouse, who died in 2001. Andrew won
a Northern Writers’ Award in 2000. His first collection of poetry, In,
received the Forward First Collection Award in 2000.
The award we give is inspired by the life and work of Andrew, who
himself lived in and was inspired by the region. The award aims to give
special support to a poet whose work shows great promise.
Kate Fox
Kate lives in Cullercoats and worked for radio stations in the North
East for eight years after qualifying as a radio journalist. She grew
up in West Yorkshire and Cumbria and is now a full-time poet, spoken
word performer, comedy organiser and workshop leader. The award of
£3,000 will support her to work on her new book which she describes as
‘a collection of poems about serial killers, stand up comedians and
dysfunctional families’.
THE ANDREA BADENOCH FICTION AWARD
Andrea Badenoch was a gifted writer who lived in Newcastle and who
produced four novels in the last few years of her life. Andrea was at
the peak of her literary career when she died in 2004. This annual
award was established and supported by her family and friends in
association with New Writing North. The award scheme is open to women
fiction writers over the age of 42, which is how old Andrea was when
she submitted the first manuscript of her first novel. The award is
judged by a panel of Andrea’s friends and family.
Shauna Mackay
Shauna has been writing for eight years since attending a course in
Blyth, where she lives with her husband and three daughters. A story
she wrote was shortlisted for a national competition and was published
in the Sunday People magazine. She then undertook an MA in creative writing at Northumbria University, where she wrote a novel. In 2000 she
received a Northern Promise Award and found an agent to represent her
novel. Her award of £4,000 will support her to work on her new novel,
The Love Games of Tower Blocks.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS 2007
On Sunday 25 March, over £27,500 was awarded to established and up and coming North East writers in the Northern Writers' Awards 2007. The winners were announced at a special event at the Queen's Hall, Hexham, as part of the Hexham Book Festival.
The judges for the awards this year were Cumbrian novelist John Murray and Northumberland-based poet Linda France. The judging process was chaired by New Writing North director Claire Malcolm.
TIME TO WRITE AWARDS
Andy Croft
Andy Croft lives in Middlesbrough, where he has been active in community writing projects for many years. He is married with six children. His books of poetry include Nowhere Special, Gaps Between Hills, Headland, Just as Blue, Great North and Comrade Laughter. He has given poetry readings in many places, including Potsdam, Sofia, Moscow, Novosibirsk and London’s Poetry International. He writes a monthly poetry column in the Morning Star and edits Smokestack Books.
Alice de Smith
Alice de Smith was born in Cambridge and moved to Newcastle five years ago. She is the author of the plays Our Kind of Fun, Briefs (with Gez Casey, both for Live Theatre, Newcastle) and The Cinderella Group (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough) and is currently developing a television drama for the BBC. Alice is also a teacher of creative writing in adult education. Before moving to Newcastle, she worked as a features and travel writer for national broadsheets.
NORTHERN PROMISE AWARDS
Jo Colley
Jo Colley has lived in the region since 1974; she currently lives in Darlington. Her current day job is as a writer of educational software. Her short stories have been runners up in the Sid Chaplin Short Story Awards. She is also a successful poet – her first collection, As If, was published by Vane Women in 2002 and her next collection, Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms, will be published by Salt in autumn 2007. She has performed her work at many events in the UK and in Finland. She is a co-ordinator for Colpitts Poets in Durham and for many years ran the successful Hydrogen Jukebox live literature events at Darlington Arts Centre.
Romi Jones
Romi is obsessed with the sea and lives in Embleton on the north Northumberland coast. She moved to the North East in 1998 and is a graduate of the MA in creative writing at Newcastle University. In 2006 her story, Eminem and the Virgin Mary, was a finalist in the Asham Short Story Award and published by Bloomsbury. She is currently working on the final draft of her first novel and a collection of short stories. For many years, Romi has worked with charities and community groups; she is interested in combining her community work skills with creative writing to run local writing workshops.
Angela Readman
Angela Readman was born in Middlesbrough and currently lives in Newcastle. Her previously published work includes Sex with Elvis (Biscuit Publishing), Colours/Colors (Diamond Twig) and Unholy Trinity (Iron Press).
Elizabeth Whyman
Having lived in Leeds for most of her life, Elizabeth Whyman moved to Newcastle in 1997 and currently works for Mslexia magazine. She is a graduate of the MA in creative writing at Northumbria University. In 2006 she was a finalist in the Cinnamon Press First Collection Award, had a poem commended in the Robert McLellan Award and won the inaugural Poetry Can First Collection competition.
THE ANDREW WATERHOUSE AWARD
Christy Ducker
Christy lives in Hexham. She runs creative writing workshops in the community and is currently working with the People’s Panel at the Laing Art Gallery. She is a graduate of the MA in creative writing at Newcastle University and was a prizewinner in the 2005 Mslexia Poetry Competition. Her poems have been published in a wide range of magazines.
THE ANDREA BADENOCH FICTION AWARD
Glynis Reed
Glynis Reed lives in Tynemouth with her husband, and has two grown-up children. She is a graduate of the MA in creative writing at Newcastle University and is a co-ordinator of The Blue Room, a venue for new and established writers to perform their work.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS 2008
On Sunday 4 May at an event at the Queen's Hall, Hexham, as part of the Hexham Book Festival, New Writing North awarded seven writers a total of £25,000 to support the development of their new novels and poetry collections.
The judges for the awards were literary agent at ICM Books in London, Karolina Sutton, and executive director of the Poetry Society of America and former poetry editor of The New Yorker, Alice Quinn.
Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Carolyn’s poetry has been published in magazines such as Poetry London, Poetry Ireland Review and The Stand and in 2005 she won a Gregory Award. An award of £3,500 will support her new collection of poetry, Inroads.
Claire Lewis
Claire is 24 and has just graduated from a journalism course at Darlington College and before that worked full-time in a betting shop. An award of £3,500 will allow her to develop her novel, The Dinosaur Room.
Mark Magrs
Mark lives in South Shields with his young family. An award of £3,500 will support him to develop his new novel for children, Moving the River.
Zainab Radhi
Zainab was born and raised in Baghdad and lived in Iraq until she was 16. Her family lost their home during the Gulf War and her teenage years were spent travelling. She currently lives in Newcastle. An award of £3,500 will support her to develop her novel, Home.
Paul Summers
Paul was born in Blyth in Northumberland and has earned his living as a writer and creative practitioner for the last ten years. He will use the award to work on Broken Land, a collection of poems which he describes a "grand tour of the often unseen, unfashionable and fast disappearing North''.
THE WATERHOUSE AWARD
Toby Martinez de las Rivas
Toby lives in Gateshead. His poetry has been published in magazines such as Dreamcatcher and Ambit and in 2005 he won a Gregory Award. His award will help him to develop his first full collection of poetry.
THE ANDREA BADENOCH FICTION AWARD
Gibby Keys
Gibby is 47 and has lived with her family in Hexham, Northumberland, for ten years. The novel for which she has won the award, The Handfastin', is her first attempt at full-length prose. She started to write prose eight years ago while attending a creative writing class at Newcastle College. This award is supported by donations from friends and family of Andrea Badenoch.Podcasts of all the winning writers reading at the awards ceremony are now available in the Multimedia section on our website. For portraits of the award-winners, see our Flickr page.
NORTHERN WRITERS’ AWARDS 2009
The winners of the Northern Writers’ Awards 2009 were announced at a special ceremony during the Hexham Book Festival on Sunday 3 May 2009. The writers share a prize pot of £25,000, which is made available through sponsorship from the Leighton Group and Arts Council England. The judges were impressed with this year’s submissions which totalled 240, a nearly 70% rise on the previous year.
TIME TO WRITE AWARDS
Time to Write Awards go to Rebecca Jenkins, from Barnard Castle, who is currently working on her new novel, Gentleman Jo and the Radical; and Marion Husband, a fiction writer from Stockton on Tees, whose previous novels have been published by Teesside-based Mudfog Press and Accent Press.
THE ANDREW WATERHOUSE AWARD
Pippa Little was selected as the recipient of this year’s Andrew Waterhouse Award, which is named in memory of poet Andrew Waterhouse, who died in 2001. The award aims to give special support to a poet whose work shows great promise.
THE ANDREA BADENOCH PRIZE
Sarah Shaw, from Derwentside, won the Andrea Badenoch Prize for her collection of short stories. This annual award was established by the family and friends of Andrea Badenoch, a gifted novelist who died of breast cancer at the height of her literary career.
NORTHERN PROMISE AWARDS
Northern Promise Awards, given to recognise and support outstanding new writing from the region, go to North Tyneside writers Lorna Elliott and Richard Rippon, and Weardale poet Pru Kitching.
The winners each receive grants of between £2,500 and £5,000 to support their works in progress.
The judges for 2009 were literary agent Carole Blake, director of Blake Friedmann Agency, and Chris and Jen Hamilton-Emery, directors of Salt Publishing. The Northern Writers’ Awards are supported by Arts Council England North East and sponsored by The Leighton Group.
For portraits of the award-winners, see our Flickr page.
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