FAQs

Please format your work as double-spaced for prose and single-spaced for poetry, 12-point text. You’re free to choose a font that appeals to you but avoid anything that doesn’t suit the tone of your work. 

Ideally, you should enter Chapter 1 followed by as many consecutive chapters as allowed within the word limit. If you feel strongly that you would like to enter work from different parts of the manuscript, this is acceptable as long as you provide clear context. 

No, please don’t. All our awards are judged anonymously. 

The word limit for each award is a guide. Don’t worry if you go slightly over (or under) the limit in order to submit a complete chapter, but please be as close as possible. 

Poetry and prose: Competition is high for the awards so please ensure that your work is of the highest possible standard before entering it. We would not expect writers to enter the first drafts of their work, or to enter work that had not been adequately spell-checked or proofread. We don’t expect that everyone who enters will have completed a full first draft of a novel or poetry collection but we would expect entrants to be well on the way to doing so. 

Writing for television awards: You do not need to have written anything prior to entering for these awards. 

Yes, if you’ve published a few stories or poems in magazines and anthologies these can be included as part of your entry. 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judging the full-length work – your collection of stories or poetry – and it is this as a whole that must be previously unpublished.

Please answer each awards question as closely as possible and stay within the word count. It might be useful to take a look at the online form and make a note of the questions to consider before-hand. 

Your biography should detail your writing experience to date and any successes that you have had. Please detail any published/produced work and note whether your work has been published in magazines or online. You might also like to say a little about when you started to write, how long you have been writing and how long you have been working on this current project. We do not require a detailed life story, or a list of all your educational qualifications. 

Your synopsis should be no more than 600 words and should outline the piece of work. For more advice on how to write a synopsis, please refer to this resource. 

The synopsis should demonstrate the unifying theme or subject of your work. You may wish to explain how you envisage the collection being structured, which could be through chronology, theme or tone. 

Yes, your sample writing does not have to come from the same synopsis you have given in your submission questions. 

Yes – whilst we have asked for one scene of up to ten pages, if your scene is shorter than ten pages you may supply multiple scenes. Just remember not to go over ten pages. 

The original storyline can be for either a single episode of a longer drama series or for a stand-alone drama. If you are submitting an episode of a series, please give some context about the full series. 

No, we are interested in identifying new writers and welcome entries by people who are new to writing, as well as those with more experience of writing but who are not yet produced. 

Yes – though keep in mind that each production company is different, and so may be looking for different things. 

Yes, as long as it is within the ten page limit. 

Writers must be based 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 appreciate that people may be temporarily living away from their usual residence. Please only apply for an award if you are a permanent resident of the North of England, and intend to still be living here in 12 months’ time. University students living in the North of England may apply for an award, as long as they will be living in the North of England for the next 12 months. 

You must be over 18 years of age to enter for most of our awards. The Young Northern Writers’ and Matthew Hale awards are for writers aged 11 to 18 years of age.  

Yes. It’s useful for us to know if you already have an agent representing your work. Please only mention having an agent if you have actually signed a representation agreement with an agency. 

As the awards exist to support work in progress you cannot enter work that is completed and for which a publishing deal is secured. If you have a book deal in place you could enter new work from your next project for an award. We define a book deal as being a signed contract with a publisher. 

No. The awards are aimed at supporting new work and work-in-progress, so work that has been previously published as a book or e-book is not eligible. 

Yes, if you meet all the necessary eligibility criteria. Most writers cannot apply with the same project they were previously awarded for. However, if you have previously won a Northern Writers’ Award for a work-in-progress, you can enter this same completed work into the Hachette Children’s Novel Award or the Northbound Book Award. 

In some circumstances, yes. Please contact [email protected] for more information about this. 

The entries are judged anonymously at all stages of the process, except when interviews are required in the case of the Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards. The reading team and judges will not see any of the monitoring information you submit, which is an important part of ensuring the judging process is fair and even. Find out more about the judges. 

You will need to include your name when you register but please leave it off your application questions and don’t include it on any part of your submission, such as the title page or as a header or footer, or in the document file name. 

All of the awards have a cash value and many include a cash award. Please read the specific descriptions of each award to see in detail how they work. Please note that the Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards are bursary-based awards. The winners of these awards will receive bursaries to cover the cost of them participating in developmental projects. 

No. We do not fund residencies, touring work or literary projects. If you are looking for support for a literary project the first port of call should be the Grants for the Arts programme at Arts Council England. 

We would rather writers used awards funding to support their time to write through buying time off from work commitments, childcare or to fund creative retreats. Please do not make explicit asks for technical equipment in your submission as this will weaken your application. 

Yes, several do. The Northern Debut Awards include mentoring from experienced writers. Mentors are not chosen from an existing pool but selected on the basis of how their skills and experience match up with the winning writers’ work. 

The Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards include mentoring as part of the package of developmental opportunities that the winners receive. 

Please read the information sheets on each award for further info. 

In addition to the individual programmes of each award strand, all Northern Writers’ Awards winners over the age of 18 will receive ongoing support (winners under 18 will receive separate support). 

Award winners discuss their work with New Writing North staff upon winning an award. At this meeting we will try and identify the best way for us to support the development of your work. Some writers use part of their awards cash prize to fund mentoring programmes, supported by New Writing North. We can advise on how to find a mentor and help to structure and deliver a mentoring programme. 

In previous years, following the announcement of the awards, we have hosted a pitching workshop and a Summer Talent Party. The pitching workshop is designed to help writers to understand how to present their work in a professional context and to overcome any fears about how to network successfully, and the Summer Talent Party is an event for literary agents and publishers to meet our award-winners. 

Due to the amount of submissions we receive, it is more manageable to accept digital applications. We use an online portal called Submittable which is an external company that many other organisations use. If you have submitted to any other programme that uses Submittable, you may already have an account. We advise you to submit via a computer rather than a mobile device, but if that isn’t an option for you we recommend using the Submittable app. 

Browse the awards that we offer and identify the particular award that best reflects both your aspirations and your current needs as a writer. Most of the awards require you to have a current work-in-progress, although the Northbound Book Award and The Hachette Children’s Novel Award are for a completed, unpublished work. 

No. We are interested in supporting talented writers, whatever their age. We understand that the work of talented writers comes to fruition at different times for different people. When we refer to ‘emerging’ or ‘new’ writers, we are not making any assumptions about the age at which writers reach or arrive at these stages. Some of our awards have specific age criteria that is clearly stated in the information about those awards. 

Unpublished: you have never published in magazines, websites or anthologies, or your work has not been broadcast or staged yet. 

Emerging: your work has appeared online, in magazines, pamphlet form or anthologies, but you are yet to publish a full-length work. If a scriptwriter, your work has begun to be performed or broadcast. 

Published: you have published one full-length work (novel, collection of short stories or poetry collection) or you have had a full script performed or broadcast. 

Established: you have published two or more full-length works (novels, collections of short stories or poetry collections) or had two or more plays or TV episodes staged or broadcast. 

Creative non-fiction has stylistic and structural similarities to fiction but deals instead with factual or mostly factual subject matter. For the Northern Writers’ Awards, our definition of the work that fits into this category includes biography, memoir, nature writing and non-fiction with a strong literary intent. 

By submitting work for an award you are agreeing to it being read by awards sifters, judges and staff at New Writing North. The copyright of your work stays with you at all times and New Writing North does not exert or ask for any rights over your work at any point in the process. 

Each year we produce de-personalised statistical information on entrants for the awards, which we report to Arts Council England, our funders. We look at entries by gender, ethnicity, geography and age. Undertaking this work helps us to see if we need to work harder to attract entries from any underrepresented groups or locations. No personal data is included in the reporting or used in any other way during this process. 

We use Submittable to receive your application, which allows you to maintain control over our access to your work – you can withdraw it at any time. Read more about Submittable’s data policy here

We understand that some of the questions on the application form are detailed and personal. We ask optional evaluation research questions which are not part of the application process. They will in no way impact your application. Please see here for more information on how we may use your application data.

You will only receive future correspondence from New Writing North if you have specifically signed up to receive our email newsletters as part of the submission process. This is not mandatory and once you have signed up you can unsubscribe at any time. We do not share your data or personal information with any other businesses or organisations and we abide by all data protection legislation.

New Writing North has a Single Equality Scheme statement that underpins all of our activities and which is reviewed annually by our board of trustees. If you wish to obtain a copy of it, please contact [email protected].