FAQs

Writers must be based in the North of England. The North of England is defined as the areas covered by Arts Council England in Yorkshire, North East and North West. 

We appreciate that people may be temporarily living away from their usual residence. Please only apply for an award if you are a permanent resident of the North of England, and intend to still be living here in 12 months’ time. University students living in the North of England may apply for an award, as long as they will be living in the North of England for the next 12 months. 

You must be over 18 years of age to enter most of our awards. The Young Northern Writers’, Matthew Hale and Eva Ibbotson awards are for writers aged 11 to 18 years of age.

No. We are interested in supporting talented writers, whatever their age. We understand that the work of talented writers comes to fruition at different times for different people. When we refer to ‘emerging’ or ‘new’ writers, we are not making any assumptions about the age at which writers reach or arrive at these stages. Some of our awards have specific age criteria that is clearly stated in the information about those awards. 

Yes, in most cases. It’s useful for us to know if you already have an agent representing your work. Please only mention having an agent if you have actually signed a representation agreement with an agency. 

The Great Northern Read Award is for unagented and unpublished writers. Please do not enter this award if you have signed with an agent.

As the awards exist to support work in progress you cannot enter work that is completed and for which a publishing deal is secured. If you have a book deal in place, you could enter new work from your next project for an award, as long as the award you are entering allows applicants who have been published. We define a book deal as being a signed contract with a publisher. 

No. The awards are aimed at supporting new work and work in progress, so work that has been previously published as a book or e-book is not eligible. 

This depends on the award. Some of our awards are specifically for debut/emerging or early career writers. We recognise that this can vary in different cases and across forms, but as a guide, this is how we understand these terms.

Debut/emerging: you have not published or self-published a full-length work. You may have published short stories or poems in magazines, websites or anthologies. If you have published one pamphlet or one novella, you would still be eligible for a Debut Award. Debut can also mean that you are a debut in that particular art form, e.g. a published poet can enter the Northern Debut Awards for Fiction.

Early career: This may approximate to having published between one and three full-length works.

We would advise you read the individual eligibility criteria carefully for each award you are considering. For example, some awards also specify that you should also be unagented (e.g. the Great Northern Read Award). The Northern Writers’ Awards for Fiction and Poetry are open to applications from both debut/emerging and established writers, but we recommend that as-yet-unpublished writers consider entering awards which are specifically for debut/emerging writers, such as the Northern Debut Awards, the Great Northern Read Award, the Hachette Children’s Novel Award, or the Tempest Award.

Yes, if you meet all the necessary eligibility criteria. Most writers cannot apply with the same project they were previously awarded for. However, if you have previously won a Northern Writers’ Award for a work-in-progress, you can enter this same completed work into the Hachette Children’s Novel Award.

If you have won an award, you cannot apply for the same award you won the year immediately after your win, e.g. if you won the Northern Debut Award in 2024, we would ask that you don’t apply to the Northern Debut Award in 2025, but you could apply to the Finchale Award or the Tempest Prize.

Creative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. For the Northern Writers’ Awards, our definition of the work that fits into this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent.

You may enter the Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction or Poetry category with text for a graphic novel. You can supply images but your submission will only be assessed on the basis of the text.

Please use double-spaced formatting for prose and single-spaced for poetry. You’re free to choose a font that appeals to you but avoid anything that doesn’t suit the tone of your work. Whichever font you choose, please make sure you use font size 12-pt.

Ideally, you should enter Chapter 1 followed by as many consecutive chapters as are allowed within the word limit. If you feel strongly that you would like to enter work from different parts of the manuscript, this is acceptable as long as you provide clear context. 

No, please do not put your name on your extract, or in the file name of your document, or in your responses to the form questions. All our awards are judged anonymously.

The word limit for each award is a guide. Don’t worry if you go slightly over (or under) the limit in order to submit a complete chapter, but please be as close as possible. 

Competition is high for the awards so please ensure that your work is of the highest possible standard before entering it. We would not expect writers to enter the first drafts of their work, or to enter work that had not been adequately spell-checked or proofread. For most of our awards, we don’t expect that everyone who enters will have completed a full first draft of a novel or poetry collection but we would expect entrants to be well on the way to doing so. 

If you are longlisted for the Hachette Children’s Novel Award or the Great Northern Read Award, you will be asked to submit a full draft of your manuscript. Therefore, although you don’t need to have a complete full draft in order to submit, you should be in a position where you will be able to submit a full draft by the dates specified on HCNA and GNRA award pages.

Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards: You do not need to have written pages of your pitch prior to entering these awards. 

Yes, if you’ve published a few stories or poems in magazines and anthologies these can be included as part of your entry. Please be sure to add an acknowledgement to each so we can see where they’ve appeared previously. Remember that we are judging the full-length work – your collection of stories or poetry – and it is this as a whole that must be previously unpublished.

Please answer each awards question as closely as possible and stay within the word count. It might be useful to take a look at the online form and make a note of the questions to consider beforehand. 

Tell us your writing experience to date and any successes that you have had. Please detail any published/produced work and note whether your work has been published in magazines or online. You might also like to say a little about when you started to write, how long you have been writing and how long you have been working on this current project. We do not require a detailed life story, or a list of all your educational qualifications. 

Read the information about what support is included in the award you’re applying for, and tell us how this, specifically, would benefit you as a writer. This might be buying time to write, receiving direction from a mentor or guidance from industry partners, or finding a writing community. Consider what best applies to your situation.

Your synopsis should be no more than 600 words and should outline the piece of work. For more advice on how to write a synopsis, please refer to this resource. 

The synopsis should demonstrate the unifying theme or subject of your work. You may wish to explain how you envisage the collection being structured, which could be through chronology, theme or tone. 

The entries are judged anonymously at all stages of the process, except when interviews are required in the case of the Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards. The reading team and judges will not see any of the monitoring information you submit, which is an important part of ensuring the judging process is fair and even. Find out more about the judges. 

You will need to include your name when you register but please leave it off your application questions and don’t include it on any part of your submission, such as the title page or as a header or footer, or in the document file name. 

All of the awards have a cash value and many include a bursary. The bursary should be used by winners to support them with their work in progress. It should not be used to fund publishing or self-publishing projects. Should you win, you will have a discussion with New Writing North about how the bursary will be used.

Please read the specific descriptions of each award to see in detail how they work. Please note that the Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards are bursary-based awards. The winners of these awards will receive bursaries to cover the cost of them participating in developmental projects. 

No. We do not fund residencies, touring work or literary projects. If you are looking for support for a literary project the first port of call should be Arts Council England: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/our-open-funds 

We would rather writers used awards funding to support their time to write through buying time off from work commitments, childcare or to fund creative retreats. Please do not make explicit asks for technical equipment in your submission as this will weaken your application. 

Yes, several awards include involve mentoring with experienced writers or with industry professionals. Mentors are not chosen from an existing pool but selected on the basis of how their skills and experience match up with the winning writers’ work (unless otherwise specified). Please read the information sheets on each award for further info. 

The Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards include mentoring as part of the package of developmental opportunities that the winners receive.

In addition to the individual programmes of each award strand, all Northern Writers’ Awards winners over the age of 18 will receive ongoing support (winners under 18 will receive separate support). Award winners discuss their work with New Writing North staff upon winning an award. At this meeting we will identify the best way for us to support the development of your work. Some writers use part of their awards cash prize to fund mentoring programmes, supported by New Writing North. We can advise on how to find a mentor and help to structure and deliver a mentoring programme. 

In addition to the individual programmes of each award strand, all Northern Writers’ Awards winners over the age of 18 will receive ongoing support (winners under 18 will receive separate support) as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards Talent Network.

The activity we run varies year to year depending on the needs of each cohort. It may include professional development sessions delivered by writers, agents and/or publishers; pitching workshops; peer group meetings with fellow winners; and opportunities to meet and pitch your work to agents.

By submitting work for an award you are agreeing to it being read by awards sifters, judges and staff at New Writing North. The copyright of your work stays with you at all times and New Writing North does not exert or ask for any rights over your work at any point in the process. 

Each year we produce de-personalised statistical information on entrants for the awards, which we report to Arts Council England, our funders and our other awards funders. Undertaking this work helps us to see if we need to work harder to attract entries from any underrepresented groups or locations. No personal data is included in the reporting or used in any other way during this process. 

We use Submittable to receive your application, which allows you to maintain control over our access to your work – you can withdraw it at any time. Read more about Submittable’s data policy here

We understand that some of the questions on the application form are detailed and personal. We ask optional evaluation research questions which are not part of the application process. They will in no way impact your application. Please see here for more information on how we may use your application data.

You will only receive future correspondence from New Writing North if you have specifically signed up to receive our email newsletters as part of the submission process. This is not mandatory and once you have signed up you can unsubscribe at any time. We do not share your data or personal information with any other businesses or organisations and we abide by all data protection legislation.

Please visit our policy page to read our Diversity and Inclusion policy:  https://newwritingnorth.com/policies/

Yes, your sample writing does not have to come from the same synopsis you have given in your submission questions. 

Yes – whilst we have asked for one scene of up to ten pages, if your scene is shorter than ten pages you may supply multiple scenes. Just remember not to go over ten pages. 

The original storyline can be for either a single episode of a longer drama series or for a stand-alone drama. If you are submitting an episode of a series, please give some context about the full series. 

No, we are interested in identifying new writers and welcome entries by people who are new to writing, as well as those with more experience of writing but who are not yet produced. 

Yes – though keep in mind that each production company is different, and so may be looking for different things. 

Yes, as long as it is within the ten page limit. 

For this prize, unpublished means you have never had any illustrations previously published by a publisher in any format (and are not under contract to have your work published). You can have been published as a writer, but not as an illustrator.

Only entries submitted online will be accepted.

You will receive an email acknowledging your entry.

You will receive an email from us by the notification date if you have successful or unsuccessful.

No submissions after the deadline will be accepted.

The 2026 CBNN Prize is only open to illustrators based in the North of England as defined by the Arts Council:

https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Map_area_boundaries.pdf

You are eligible for this prize if you are 18 or over, a UK resident and living in the North West, North East or Yorkshire. You must also be unpublished at the point of submission. Full terms and conditions are available ​​here.