Eligibility

You must be over the age of 18 to enter the awards.  

You may submit to all three strands of the Writing for Television Awards: Bonafide Films, Red Productions, and Rollem Productions. You may not apply for any other awards in addition to these. If you apply for any other award, your submission will be discounted. Shortlisted writers for all strands of the awards will be invited for interview in August or September 2024. These will take place via video call.   

The production companies (Lime Pictures, Bonafide Films, Red productions and Rollem Productions) will be given the right of a first look at any scripts developed during their respective placement opportunities.  

No writing experience is necessary. For these awards, we want to discover new writers from Northern England who would like to work in television. We especially welcome submissions from people of colour and those from LGBTQ+, disabled and lower socio-economic backgrounds, who are particularly under-represented in this area of the TV industry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University. Employees of Channel 4, Bonafide Films or Red Productions may not apply for the TV award strands.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter.  

This award is for individual short stories of up to 1500 words.  

This award is open to new, emerging and established writers.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers whose work is set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter.

There are two winners for this award. The winning writers will be offered a financial prize of £3000 each; and a programme of mentoring opportunities with the publisher Hachette Children’s Group and a children’s publishing agent, including a minimum of 4 professional development sessions in a nine-month period, across editorial and design, sales, marketing and rights. Any reasonable travel expenses would be covered by the publisher. Additionally, the winner will receive access to New Writing North’s programmes of support.

Hachette Children’s Group reserves the right to consider any of the longlisted entries for publication. Each entrant of a longlisted entry (including the winners) agrees to enter into good faith discussions with Hachette Children’s Group if their entry is considered for publication.

We accept all kinds of debut children’s and early teen fiction, including but not limited to, romance, comedy, historical fiction, crime, mystery and fantasy. Please do not submit collections of short stories or individual short stories. Middle-grade fiction is for children aged approximately 8-11, and teen fiction is for readers aged 11/12+ and excludes high-end or explicit content including swearing, sex and drugs. We do not accept young adult fiction for this award.

For the purposes of this award, ‘debut’ is defined as an author who has not published, nor is contracted to publish, a full-length work in children’s or early teen fiction. Writers previously published in other genres such as poetry, non-fiction and writing for adults may apply for this award. The writer must be unagented at the time of submission.

The initial work entered for this award will be a submission of 3000-6000 words, supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book. This must be submitted by the award deadline. A longlist of up to 10 writers will then be invited to submit the full-length draft of their novel at a later date. The longlist will considered by representatives of Hachette and New Writing North, with a shortlist of up to 6 writers submitted to the judges. Full-length manuscripts must be no shorter than 15,000 words and no longer than 65,000 words.

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period, it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.

The judging panel for this award consists of representatives of Hachette and New Writing North, alongside publishing professionals from unrelated organisations (such as literary agents or booksellers) and a writer.

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final, and no communication will be entered into on the subject.

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs.

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North, Hachette, or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.
11. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
12. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
13. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

This award is for a young person aged 11-18.  

The Matthew Hale Award is open to young writers who show promise but have had limited opportunities to pursue their talent. This could be due to a number of factors, including physical or mental ill-health, family circumstances, financial circumstances, lack of access to cultural opportunities or any other reasons.  

Young writers can submit creative work in any form including prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting and rap. There is a maximum word limit of 2000 words or 5 poems, but this is not a target and we welcome submissions that are shorter than this.

There is one award winner each year. The award consists of a package of support created by New Writing North and is worth £500. The package will be tailored to the specific interests and needs of the winner, but could include anything from one-on-one mentoring with a professional writer, enrolment on a course, books, theatre tickets or a pass to a literature festival.  

Applications for this award are accepted in two ways:  

–       through nomination from an adult working with the young person (for example, parents, teachers or other adults)
–       by application directly from the young person  

This award is judged by the family of Matthew Hale and New Writing North.  

If you have any questions about either the Young Northern Writer Award or the Matthew Hale Award please contact the NWN Young Writers team on [email protected].  

Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
6. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

You must be over the age of 18 to enter. 

We accept fiction and narrative non-fiction for this award.  To be eligible for this award your manuscript must be complete at the time of application. 

New, emerging and established writers may enter for this award. If your work is at an earlier stage of development you should enter one of our other awards strands. 

We accept fiction from any genre, including literary fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. You may submit novels, novellas and collections of short stories, but not individual short stories. We do not accept poetry, children’s writing or young adult novels for this award. 

Children’s writers should enter the Hachette Children’s Novel Award. Young Adult writers should explore our awards strands for the most appropriate outlet. Poets should enter either the New North Poets Award or the Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry. 

Narrative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. Work that fits in this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing or translation are not eligible for entry. 

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England. 

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact. 

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible. 

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work. 

To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry. 

New Writing North and Saraband will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject. 

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University. Employees of Saraband or the University of York may not enter for this award.
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
10. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
11. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter this award.  

For the purposes of this award, ‘debut’ is defined as an author who has not published, nor is contracted to publish, a full-length work of fiction or narrative non-fiction. Writers previously published in other genres such as poetry, academic writing and writing for children may apply for this award. Writers who have self-published full-length works are not considered debut authors for this award.  

We accept fiction from any genre, including literary fiction, young adult fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. You may submit novels, novellas and collections of short stories, but not individual short stories.  

Narrative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. Work that fits in this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing or translation are not eligible for entry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. For prose writers we expect to see an extract of work supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book that you are working to complete. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website. 
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.  
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work. All submissions must be written by a single author.  
4. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.  
5. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.  
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.  
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.  
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.  
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.  
10. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.  
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

You must be over the age of 18 to enter the awards.  

This award is for works of poetry that can be considered as being in progress. These can include both pamphlets and collections.  

For the purposes of this award, ‘debut’ is defined as a poet who has not yet published a full collection. Poets who have published pamphlets or in magazines and anthologies may apply if they have not published, or are not contracted to publish, a full collection. Writers previously published in other genres such as fiction, academic writing and writing for children may apply for this award.   

Your application can include poems that have been previously published in magazines and anthologies. 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 and it is this as a whole that must be previously unpublished.   

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter.  

For this award you must be either a final-year student or graduate from any discipline at Northumbria University and based in the North of England. This includes final-year undergraduates; current postgraduate students or alumni who have graduated from an undergraduate or postgraduate programme at Northumbria University within the last ten years.  

We accept works of poetry, fiction of all genres, children’s fiction, creative non-fiction and graphic novels for this award. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing, translation or self-publishing projects are not eligible for entry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. For prose writers we expect to see an extract of work supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book that you are working to complete. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

You may alternatively enter a short piece of standalone fiction, poetry or narrative non-ficiton for this award of 3000-6000 words. 

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.  
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work. All submissions must be written by a single author.  
4. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.  
5. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.  
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.  
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.  
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.  
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.  
10. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.  
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter.  

We accept fiction and narrative non-fiction for this award.   

We accept fiction from any genre, including literary fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. You may submit novels, novellas and collections of short stories, but not individual short stories.  

Narrative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. Work that fits in this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing or translation are not eligible for entry.  

New, emerging and established writers may enter for this award but we recommend that debut authors consider entering the Northern Debut Awards programme or the Hachette Children’s Novel Award (for children’s writers).  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. For prose writers we expect to see an extract of work supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book that you are working to complete. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.  
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work. All submissions must be written by a single author.  
4. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.  
5. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.  
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.  
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.  
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.  
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.  
10. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.  
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.

You must be over the age of 18 to enter.  

This award is for works of poetry that can be considered as being in progress. These can include both pamphlets and collections.   

Your application can include poems that have been previously published in magazines and anthologies. 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 and it is this as a whole that must be previously unpublished. 

New, emerging and established poets may enter for this award but we recommend that poets who have not yet published a full collection consider entering the Northern Debut Awards: Poetry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. We expect you to be able to present work in progress from a collection of poetry or pamphlet and to give information about the scope of the manuscript that you wish to complete.   

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.  
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work. All submissions must be written by a single author.  
4. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.  
5. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.  
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.   
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.  
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.  
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.  
10. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.  
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

You must be over the age of 18.  

We accept fiction and narrative non-fiction for this award. Our mission is to support writing of exceptional literary merit by a writer who self-identifies as originating from a working-class background.   

Unpublished, emerging and established writers may apply for this award.  

Submissions may be on any theme or topic and can include young adult writing, memoir, novels and short story collections, and works of literary essays. We accept fiction from any genre, including literary fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. You may submit novels, novellas and collections of short stories, but not individual short stories.  

Narrative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. Work that fits in this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing or translation are not eligible for entry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. For prose writers we expect to see an extract of work supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book that you are working to complete. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs.

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.  
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work. All submissions must be written by a single author.  
4. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.  
5. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.  
6. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.   
7. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.  
8. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.  
9. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.  
10. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.  
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.  
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

You must be over the age of 18 to enter the awards.  

This award is open to people who may have faced barriers to seeing their work progress for financial reasons or issues connected to disability, ethnicity and/or sexuality. For more information, see TLC’s website. 

We accept poetry, fiction, including children’s and young adult, and narrative non-fiction for these awards. We accept fiction from any genre, including literary fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. You may submit novels, novellas and collections of short stories, but not individual short stories. 

Narrative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. Work that fits in this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. Works of factual, technical, journalistic and scientific writing, local history, travel writing or translation are not eligible for entry.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

The Northern Writers’ Awards support new work in progress. The work that you enter for the awards must be your current work in progress. For prose writers we expect to see an extract of work supported by a synopsis that fully describes the book that you are working to complete. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.  

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline not be eligible for entry.   

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

 For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards. 

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

You must be over the age of 18 to enter the awards.  

This award is for individual short stories of up to 2000 words.  

This award is open to writers who have not yet published a full-length work of fiction (either novels or short story collections).  

Previously self-published writers and published authors from other genres such as non-fiction and poetry may apply.  

The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the North of England. Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England. Undergraduate and postgraduate students may enter if they are permanently based in the North of England.  

To be considered, work does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme. Writers who are writing books set in the North of England but who do not live in the region are not eligible.   

All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.  

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.   

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.  
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity.
6. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
7. The awards are not open to employees and trustees of New Writing North or of our major supporters, Arts Council England and Northumbria University.
8. All winning authors must be available to participate in media and PR for the award around the time of the awards ceremony and related events.
9. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
11. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded.
12. We apologise in advance that we are unable to enter into individual correspondence with writers about submissions that do not win awards or to give specific feedback on every submission that is made. This is due to the exceptionally large amount of entries that we have to process as part of the awards.  

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time. 

This award is for a young person aged 11-18 years. 

There are two age categories, 11-14 and 15-18, and entrants must be 18 or under on 12 February 2024 when the awards close. 

Young writers can submit creative work in any form including prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting and rap. There is a maximum word limit of 2000 words or 5 poems, but this is not a target and we welcome submissions that are shorter than this.

The winner in each category will receive prize money of £150. Up to two writers may also be highly commended across the age categories.  

Applications for this award are accepted in two ways:  

–       through nomination from an adult working with the young person.  

–       by application directly from the young person.  

If you have any questions about either the Young Northern Writer Award or the Matthew Hale Award please contact the NWN Young Writers team on [email protected].  

Applicants must currently live full-time 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 regret we are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in our funding from Arts Council England.  

 All entries must be made through the online submissions portal. To qualify, a submission must consist of two items: the online application form and the creative work in progress. To be eligible submissions to the awards must have been made by the award deadline. Submissions received after the deadline will not be eligible for entry.   

New Writing North will make final decisions on eligibility. Our decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into on the subject.  

For more advice and guidance on your application, visit our FAQs. 

1. All submissions to the awards must be made via the awards website.
2. Incomplete submissions will not be considered or acknowledged.
3. The work that you enter must be your own original work.
4. All submissions must be written by a single author.
5. If you win an award you will be asked to prove your place of residence and identity. New Writing North withholds the right to withdraw and reclaim the financial value of an award if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated any information in their submission.
6. We reserve the right to vary the rules and conditions of entry and to make any amendments to the published schedule as are deemed necessary.
7. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is eligible for the prize.
8. By entering your work for the awards you are confirming to us that the work that you are submitting is your own original work, and that you have read and agree to the Conditions of Entry of the awards.
9. We will write to everyone who entered for an award and inform them of the outcome of their application once the judging process has concluded. 

We intend that entering your work for the awards is an accessible process. If you are unclear about any aspect of the submission process please read our Frequently Asked Questions here. If your query can’t be answered this way please email us at [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to your email in good time.