Journal

Northern Writers' Award-winner Amy Stewart recounts what she has learnt under the mentorship of author Catherine Menon, and the impact this experience has had on her writing life. 

In this post, Northern Writers' Award winner Kit Fan delves into his experience of winning and how this helped him on his journey to publication.

Poet and Northern Writers' Awards winner Kate Davis gives us some great advice on why applying and taking the plunge is always worthwhile.

Shelley Day Sclater, winner of the 2011 Andrea Badenoch Award, discusses how the award impacted her life and career as a writer.

In this post, Maria Isakova Bennett discusses her experience in winning her Northern Writers' Award, and how that changed her confidence and work as a poet and artist.

If writing a book is a strange process that can take you from inspiration to despair, then crowdfunding one is peak emotional rollercoaster. In this post, Northern Writers' Award winner Amy Lord lets us in on the wild world of crowdfunding a novel.

Iain Rowan, winner of the 2018 Arvon Award, lets us know about his experience winning the award and how he spent his time in rural Shropshire.

I’ll start with a confession. When I first read Virginia Woolf’s famous essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’ in my early twenties, I didn’t really relate to it. Fresh out of university and managing my dreams of being a writer alongside my office day job, I responded to Woolf’s feminist politics, but didn’t feel the necessity of her prescription. In fact, I dismissed it as a middle class luxury.

Eloise was the recipient of the Cuckoo Young Writers Award 2017, she makes time to write both poetry and prose around her studies, taking inspiration from anything she can find.

Amy Lord, Northern writer and blogger invites us into the cosy space she uses to write, the very place in which she finished her Northern Writers' Award winning title The Disappeared, due to be published by Unbound.

Sarah Dunnakey submitted the first three draft chapters of her novel The Companion for the Northern Writers’ Awards 2014. Three years on she writes about her experience of applying and winning, just before her appearance at the NWAs 2017 Yorkshire Roadshow.

Jessica Sinyard, our December blogger in residence, offers tips for aspiring screenwriters on entering competitions

Amy Langdown, who was awarded a Matthew Hale Award in 2016, talks about being a Cuckoo Young Writer, and the experience of winning a Northern Writers' Award.

Jessica Sinyard, our December blogger in residence, returns with advice on pitching your screenplay.

"When asked that old question, ‘Why study Creative Writing?’ I used to shoot back, ‘Because I want to be a waiter’. It’s a spin on a Billy Connolly joke that guarantees a cheap laugh. Yet, like many arts graduates I know, I was a waiter after my Creative Writing BA. A temporary fix that lasted years, as I struggled to compile a first collection I felt confident with..."

"Having a standard way of communicating allows readers to be undistracted by trying to decipher a new form each time they read a script, and instead to immerse themselves in what really matters – your story, your characters, and the world you have created."

I haven’t yet come down from the ceiling since winning a Northern Writers’ Award. Hearing a lovely review of my stories at the awards ceremony felt like the pinnacle, but there was more. The following week I met leading literary agents at a talent party organised by New Writing North (NWN) in London. The evening was relaxed and fun, but might have been daunting if not for the preparatory pitching workshop NWN also organised. I now know how to weave my pitch into ordinary party small talk! This workshop was also huge fun and I made great friends there.

Each year we take to the road to spread the word about the Northern Writers’ Awards, visit new places and meet writers. It was a genuine pleasure to head to Sheffield last weekend for a special poetry-themed Roadshow run in partnership with pioneering publisher, the Poetry Business. As our expert speakers arrived for the day, I was tempted to abandon the planned programme and rapidly instigate a series of poetry readings. Clare Pollard, Degna Stone, Anna Woodford, Suzannah Evans and Mark Pajak formed a striking gathering of poetic talent in a single room, but we kept to the script and stuck to prose.