Northern Writers’ Awards 2026 open for entries
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The Northern Writers’ Awards are open for submissions for 2026.
England’s largest and longest running writer development scheme offers support to emerging and established writers as they work on promising new works-in-progress, by providing packages of cash prizes, mentoring, ongoing career support, and more.
The full slate of awards is separated into submission windows throughout the year. A new submission window opened today, including some of the programme’s flagship awards as well as a brand-new opportunity for this year:
- Northern Writers’ Awards: Cash prizes of up to £3000 to emerging or established writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry.
- Northern Debut Awards: £2000 bursaries and mentoring to writers of fiction, young adult fiction, narrative non-fiction or poetry who are yet to publish a full-length work.
- Great Northern Read Award: £2500 and a structured mentoring programme from Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency for unpublished and unagented writers of gripping fictions across all genres, including but not limited to: crime, mystery, historical, romance, fantasy, sci-fi and book club fiction.
Submissions for these awards are being accepted until 5 February and will be judged by Hellie Ogden and Irenosen Okojie (fiction), John Glenday (poetry), and Anna Power, RJ Barker and Rosanna Forte (Great Northern Read Award).
“I’m thrilled to be judging these awards. I’m looking forward to reading the next big thing, and championing a range of debut authors.” Helen Ogden
“Northern Writers’ Award is a brilliant platform for writers based in the north of England, providing a vital pathway for these voices into the industry. It’s a privilege to be a judge. I’m looking forward to discovering some exciting voices and reading the range of manuscripts submitted.” Irenosen Okojie MBE FRSL
“I’m delighted to have been asked to judge these awards, which encourage and celebrate the richness of writing talent in the North of England by supporting poets at every stage in their development. I’ll be looking out for work which shows insight, skill and promise; poems which remind me what the language is capable of; poems which remind me what it means to be human.” John Glenday
“Here at Johnson & Alcock, we’re passionate about working with new writers, so we’re delighted to be teaming up with New Writing North and our stellar judges to help discover and nurture a new generation of great Northern novelists. We’re very excited to see the breadth of storytelling talent out there.” Anna Power, Johnson & Alcock
Awards from the first two submission windows are still open for entry, including the Hachette Children’s Novel Awards, the Young Northern Writers’ Awards, the Matthew Hale Award, the Eva Ibbotson Award, and the Children’s Books North Network Prize.
Further awards will open in early 2026.