Northern Writers’ Awards 2022: Twenty-nine winners are announced!
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We are delighted to have awarded 29 writers from the North of England more than £50,000 at the Northern Writers’ Awards at a ceremony in Newcastle on Tuesday (5 July) evening. This was our annual awards programme’s first live celebration since 2019, with a hybrid in-person and digital event.
The Northern Writers’ Awards were founded in 2000 and exist to recognise talent and support new work towards publication or broadcast. Now in their 23rd year, the awards are the largest writing development programme of their kind in England and have a reputation for identifying some of the country’s best unpublished writing. Selected from a record-breaking 2035 entries in 2022, this year’s winners will join an impressive list of 360 writers who have been previously supported through the programme, many of whom have gone on to critical acclaim.
The Northern Writers’ Awards 2022: Celebration and Showcase event took place at Northumbria University and was hosted by 2013 winner Andrew McMillan. Andrew was supported by the awards for his debut poetry collection, physical, which went on to win the 2015 Guardian First Book Award.
The event also featured previous winners including Yvonne Battle-Felton, whose Northern Writers’ Awards-winning book Remembered was longlisted for the Women’s Prize; Jayshree Patel, who won a Channel 4 Writing for Television Award in 2016 launching her career as a television writer on Hollyoaks; Shaun Wilson, a two-time award winner who read from his work-in-progress Malc’s Boy; and the acclaimed poet Linda France, who won an award for her poetry in 2012.
The Northern Writers’ Awards offer a wide range of support and opportunities for writers at all stages of their careers, including publication, mentoring, manuscript assessment, writing placements, retreats and cash awards to buy time to write. Huge congratulations to all of this year’s winners, we can’t wait to see where the awards take you.
The full list of winners is:
Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction
Katie Hale
Northern Writers’ Awards for Poetry
Kit Fan |
Hannah Hodgson
Suzanne Batty
NorthBound Book Award
Julia Rampen
Hachette Children’s Novel Award
Karon Alderman
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Lime Pictures
Tom Smith
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Rollem Productions
Natalie Beech
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Bonafide Films
Natalie Mirosch
Northern Debut Awards for Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction
Gráinne O’Hare
Stephanie Gavan
Northern Debut Award for Young Adult Fiction
Anna Quirke
Northern Debut Awards for Poetry
Gregory Kearns
Nicky Kippax
Northern Debut Award for Poetry: Out-Spoken Press Programme
Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell
Andrea Badenoch Award
Ally North
Northumbria University Student and Alumni Award
Susannah Ronnie
Sid Chaplin Award
Andrew Ballantyne (Winner)
Ruskin Smith (Highly commended)
Finchale Award for Short Fiction
Jack Joslin
TLC Free Read
Jessie Jacobs
Khatijah Balu
Arvon Award
Catherine Spooner
Young Northern Writers’ Awards
Izzy Baillie Smith (Winner, 11-14)
Ella Youngs (Highly commended, 11-14)
Sawyer Brook (Winner, 15-18)
Hala Mukhair (Highly commended, 15-18)
Matthew Hale Award
Nefeli Frida (Winner)
Isabelle Pollard (Highly commended)
Find out more about all of the writers here
You can rewatch the live stream here.
The Northern Writers’ Awards are produced by New Writing North with support from Northumbria University and Arts Council England.
Awards partners Channel 4, Hachette Children’s Group and University of York work with New Writing North to create transformational opportunities for writers.
Additional financial support for individual awards comes from Newcastle University, The North Literary Agency, the writer Benjamin Myers and the families and friends of Andrea Badenoch, Sid Chaplin and Matthew Hale.
Several of the awards are enhanced by partnerships with Saraband, Arvon, the Literary Consultancy, the Society of Authors, Rollem Productions, Lime Pictures, Bonafide Films, Out-Spoken Press, Oneworld, Madeleine Milburn Agency and the Soho Agency.