Northern Writers’ Awards 2020: winners announced
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Twenty-six writers from a record 1800 entrants have received awards worth over £45,000 to support their unpublished work-in-progress in this year’s Northern Writers’ Awards.
This year is the 21st anniversary of the Northern Writers’ Awards, founded by New Writing North.
The Northern Writers’ Awards recognise talent and support new work towards publication or broadcast by offering mentoring, developmental support and cash awards to writers at all stages of their careers.
The Northern Writers’ Awards are supported by Arts Council England and Northumbria University along with a host of publishing, media and higher education partners including Channel 4 and Hachette Children’s Group.
Particularly during this very challenging time, we’re delighted that we can make these awards to support writers in the North of England. We look forward to working with the awardees and our awards partners throughout the year.
The list of 2020 winners in full is:
Northern Writers’ Awards for Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction
Susan Barker
Ruqaya Izzidien
Rebecca Muddiman
Northern Writers’ Awards for Poetry
Jennifer Lee Tsai
Suzannah V Evans
Hannah Hodgson
Polly Atkin
Fokkina McDonnell
Hachette Children’s Novel Award
Hannah Durkan
NorthBound Book Award
John D Rutter
Northern Debut Awards
Ruksana Abdul-Majid
Victoria Bennett
Gaynor Jones
TLC Free Reads Scheme
Mark Holmes
Dani Watson
The Sid Chaplin Award
Winner: Jodie Russian-Red
Highly Commended: Sarah Tarbit
Northumbria University Student and Alumni Award
Andrew Wilkinson
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Bonafide Films
Samantha Neale
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Lime Pictures
Jenna Campbell
Andrea Badenoch Fiction Award
Sally Tottle
Arvon Award
Naomi Kelsey
Young Northern Writer Award
Winner: Katie Wilson
Highly Commended: Naomi Thomas, Wambui Hardcastle
Matthew Hale Award
Jessica de Beer
Read about all of our winners on the Northern Writers’ Awards site
Judges for this year’s awards include the writers Naomi Booth, Vahni Capildeo, Mitch Johnson and Amy Liptrot; literary agent Chloe Seager, from the Madeleine Milburn Agency; and editors Kris Doyle, from Picador, and Kate Agar from Hachette Children’s Books.
The Northern Writers’ Awards 2020 were produced by New Writing North with support from the following organisations:
Headline supporters: Northumbria University and Arts Council England
Award partners: Channel 4, Hachette Children’s Group, Newcastle University, All3Media
Literature and broadcast supporters: Arvon, The Literary Consultancy, Oneworld Publications, The Society of Authors, The North Literary Agency, Saraband, Bonafide Films, Lime Pictures, Madeleine Milburn Agency and Dead Ink Books.