Menu

Winners 2013

Fiction Awards

  • Jude Brown

    Jude Brown has an MA in writing from Sheffield Hallam University, and has had a varied career to date, including working as a nurse, tutor, designer, and art therapist. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, and in 2011 she was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition. Originally from Durham, she now lives in Sheffield.

    In 2013, she won a Northern Writers’ Award worth £1,500 to support her to work on her novel, The Dangerous Sun.

    Online
    http://twitter.com/joodebrown

  • Sophie Coulombeau

    Sophie Coulombeau is a PhD student in 18th century studies at the University of York, and was awarded the Route Publishing/Arts Council Next Great Novelist Award in 2011. Her debut novel, Rites, was published in 2012, and was described by Philip Pullman as ‘Terrific. A story that’s intriguing, puzzling, and entirely gripping.’ She lives in York.

    In 2013, she won a Northern Writers’ Award worth £1,500 to support her to work on her historical novel, The Age of Gyres.

    Online
    http://sophiecoulombeau.wordpress.com/
    Twitter: @smcoulombeau

  • Carys Davies

    Carys Davies was the winner of the 2011 Royal Society of Literature’s VS Pritchett Memorial Prize and the 2010 Society of Authors’ Olive Cook Short Story Award. Her debut collection of stories, Some New Ambush, was published in 2007 and longlisted for the Wales Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Roland Mathias Prize, and a finalist for the Calvino Prize in the US. Born in Wales, she now lives in Lancaster.

    In 2013, she won a Northern Writers’ Award worth £500 to support the development of her short story collection, The Redemption of Galen Pike and Other Stories.

    Online
    www.carysdavies.net

  • Jordana Hill

    Jordana Hill works in marketing and communications, and has an MA in creative writing from Manchester University. Originally from Doncaster, she now lives in Manchester.

    In 2013, she won a Northern Writers’ Award worth £500 to support the development of her futuristic novel for young adults, The Representative.

    Online
    Twitter: @jordana_hill

  • Benjamin Myers

    Benjamin Myers is a freelance journalist whose previously published novels include Sunday Times book of the year Richard, and Pig Iron, a runner-up in The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize 2012. Originally from Durham, he now lives in West Yorkshire.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, he was awarded £5,000 to support him to work on his new novel, The Bairn.

    Online
    www.benmyers.com
    Twitter: @benmyers1

Poetry Awards

  • Ian Duhig

    Ian Duhig has written seven books of poetry, most recently The Blind Roadmaker (Picador 2016) which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, shortlisted for the Roehampton, Forward Best Collection and TS Eliot Prizes. A former homelessness worker, Duhig still often works with socially excluded groups though now on writing projects and is currently developing a piece for Refugee Tales. Duhig has designed visual poetry installations, such as the ‘Interventions’ project, co-operated with visual artists (his Digressions project and exhibition with Philippa Troutman toured London and Yorkshire), musicians (his updating of the Roman de Fauvel for The Clerks was premiered on the South Bank in 2006 and toured the USA) and film-makers (Paul Casey’s film of his poem ‘The Lammas Hireling’ is on a curriculum at the Sorbonne). He is also an anthologised short story writer, in which capacity he was a joint winner of a Shirley Jackson Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Cholmondeley Award recipient, Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once and the National Poetry Competition twice.

    Online
    Twitter: @IanDuhig

  • Carolyn Jess-Cooke

    Carolyn Jess-Cooke was born in 1978 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She started writing as a child, producing first a book of illustrated short stories at the age of seven, then a series of novels and poetry collections. After years of pestering publishers she finally saw her work in print at the age of seventeen; since then her work has appeared in such prestigious publications as Poetry London, Ambit, Magma, Poetry Wales, The SHOp, Poetry Ireland, and The Wolf, and on a variety of non-print media, including a poem that has been set into a 700m ribbon of steel at the Roseberry Park Medical Facility in Middlesbrough – currently the largest piece of public textual art in the UK. Carolyn has performed her work at the Sydney Writer’s Festival, the Ledbury Poetry Festival and at the Irish Writer’s Centre, and has received numerous awards, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, the Tyrone Guthrie Prize for Poetry, and a Northern Promise Award.

    Following a first class honours degree in English literature and classical studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Carolyn received a scholarship to study for a masters degree in creative writing, during which she developed the first drafts of what would later become her debut poetry collection, Inroads. Working as a piano tutor, pianist, photographer, and the occasional acting stint, Carolyn travelled the world during this time and lived for several years in Sydney, Australia. Later completing a PhD in Shakespeare on film, Carolyn took up an academic post in film studies at the University of Sunderland in 2005 followed by a senior post in creative writing at the University of Northumbria in 2009. She gave up tenure in 2011 to write full time.

    Carolyn has published four non-fiction books in the areas of Shakespeare, film, and sequels, a poetry collection (Inroads [Seren, 2010]), and her debut novel, The Guardian Angel’s Journal, about a woman who dies and goes back in time as her own guardian angel, was published in the UK & Commonweath by Piatkus/Little, Brown as their 2011 superlead title and immediately hit the Bookseller’s Heatseeker’s chart. The Guardian Angel’s Journal is published in over 20 languages. Carolyn’s second novel, The Boy Who Could See Demons, was published in the UK, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands in 2012; Random House are publishing the US version in 2013. A second poetry collection, Boom!, is being published by Seren in 2014.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, Carolyn was awarded £500 towards a writing retreat to complete her second collection of poetry, Boom! As an academic, she is currently working on a research project which explores creative writing interventions for mental illness. Carolyn lives in Whitley Bay with her husband and four children.

    Selected publications
    Inroads (Seren, 2010)
    The Guardian Angel’s Journal (Piatkus, 2011)
    The Boy Who Could See Demons (Piatkus, 2012
    Online
    Website: www.carolynjesscooke.com
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyn-Jess-Cooke-Author/158347617540515?fref=ts
    Twitter: @CJessCooke

  • Zaffar Kunial

    Born in Birmingham, Zaffar Kunial now lives in West Yorkshire. In 2011 he was placed third in the National Poetry Competition.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, he was awarded £5,000 to support him to work on his debut poetry collection.

    Online
    @ZaffarKunial

  • Geraldine Monk

    Geraldine Monk was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1952. Since first being published in the 1970s she has written six major collections of poetry and numerous chapbooks. Her writing has appeared extensively in the both the UK and the USA.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, she was awarded £2,000 to support the development of her new collection of poetry, Forgiving Mirrors.

Andrea Badenoch Fiction Award

  • Beverley Ward

    Beverley Ward is a writing coach and consultant currently working for Sheffield’s Signposts Writing Project, and is nationally recognised for her creative work with young people. She lives in Sheffield.

    At the 2013 Northern Writers’ Awards, she won the Andrea Badenoch Fiction Award worth £2,000 to support her to work on her novel for young adults, Straight on Till Morning.

Arvon Award

  • Stacey Sampson

    Stacey Sampson has worked as a professional actor across theatre, television and film since the age of 15. This gradually evolved into writing for stage & screen and Stacey’s work has premiered at regional theatres and toured nationally. She is an Associate Artist with internationally acclaimed Third Angel and collaborates with them on a regular basis.

    Stacey has been selected for various development schemes as a playwright. In 2015 she was named by the BBC as one of their ‘Ones to Watch’ and completed a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship with tutti-frutti, Leeds. In 2016 she was selected as one of twelve ‘Next Generation Artists’ and represented the UK at the international ASSITEJ festival (about making work for and with young people). She has also been part of the Fuse Project at Sheffield Theatres and invited to take part in development workshops with the Royal Court.

    Stacey’s fiction has won a Northern Writers’ Award, an Arvon Award and the Mslexia Novel Competition. She took part in the prestigious Arvon Jerwood Mentoring Scheme and a selection of this work will be launched in 2017. She is represented by Hardman & Swainson Literary Agency and her novel is currently on submission to publishers.

    Online
    @OurStace

The Andrew Waterhouse Award

  • Suzannah Evans

    Suzannah Evans lives in Sheffield. Her pamphlet Confusion Species was a winner in the 2012 Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition and her debut collection Near Future was published by Nine Arches Press in 2018. She was the winner of a Gladstone’s Library residency in October 2019 for Near Future. She has published poems in magazines including The Rialto, Poetry Review, Magma, Butchers’ Dog and Poetry Wales and her poem ‘Helpline’ was Poem of the Week on The Guardian.

    She is currently working on her second collection, Space Baby, which wants to ask difficult questions about the Earth and its humans and their future; how do we look to the future on a planet that’s burning? How do we come to terms with our grief? If we destroy what we have, where will we go?

    Online
    http://suzannahevans.wordpress.com/
    Twitter: @Suzannahevans

Newcastle Australia Residency Award

  • Toby Martinez de las Rivas

    Toby Martinez de las Rivas was born in 1978 and attended Durham University where he graduated in History & Archaeology in 1999. He received an Eric Gregory award from the Society of Authors in 2005, and the Andrew Waterhouse Award and Australia Residency Award from New Writing North in 2008 and 2013 respectively. He had a pamphlet published as part of the Faber New Poets series in 2009, and was awarded an Arts Council Grant in 2010.

    He has had work published in a range of UK, American and European journals including Poetry (Chicago), The Tupelo Quarterly, Poetry Review, Poetry London, Rialto and Ambit, as well as in a number of recent anthologies such as Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (Bloodaxe), Lung Jazz: Young British Poets for Oxfam (Cinnamon/Eyewear) and Dear World and Everyone In It: New Poetry in the UK (Bloodaxe).

    His first collection, Terror, was published by Faber & Faber in 2014 and his second, Black Sun, is due in 2018, also with Faber. His work will also appear as part of the Penguin Modern Poets series.

New Fiction Bursaries

  • Michael Golding

    A visual artist for over 30 years, Michael Golding holds an MA in fine art and a doctorate in photography and digital imaging. Previously a senior lecturer in photography, Michael recently completed an MA in creative writing at Newcastle University. He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

    He received a New Fiction Bursary at the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013 for his novel, Salvage.

  • Marie-Claire Imam-Gutierrez

    Marie-Claire is a primary school teacher who co-ordinates the North-East of England arm of SCBWI, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

    Since winning her New Fiction Bursary, she has written two more mid-grade children’s novels, which she is currently editing.

    She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University in 2016 and now has an agent at Conville and Walsh.

  • EM Killaley

    Emily Owens, who writes as EM Killaley, was editor and co-founder of her undergraduate university’s Art & Literary Journal in Atlanta, Georgia, and has had a continuing involvement with various literary journals over the past seven years. She is currently completing an MA in creative writing at Northumbria University, and has been longlisted for Fish Publishing’s Flash Fiction Contest and published in the Eudora Welty Review. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

    She received a New Fiction Bursary at the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013 for her novel, The Unfamiliar Land.

    Online
    http://killaley.wordpress.com/
    Twitter: @EMKillaley

  • Mo Lovatt

    Mo began travelling at the age of 17 and hasn’t stopped since. She’s interested in how people live, survive and flourish under oppressive regimes. Her first novel, African Violet, won a New Fiction Bursary in 2013. Set before, during and after Apartheid, it’s based on her own experiences of modern South Africa and her grandmother’s early life growing up on the Cape. Currently, Mo is undertaking a New Writing North-funded PhD looking at sustaining cultural provision in deprived areas and working on her second novel set in Ceausescu’s Romania. She has a BA in PPE from the University of Oxford and teaches on Northumbria’s MA in Cultural Management.

    Online
    Twitter: @LovattMo

New Poets Bursaries

  • Kate Davis

    Kate Davis has been writing for 20 years and has an MA in creative writing. She has written plays for both stage and radio, and has developed several artworks and installations combining sound and text. She lives in Cumbria.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, she was awarded a New Poets Bursary to help her develop her first collection of work. The bursary, worth £1,800, will allow her to participate in a development programme produced by The Poetry School and led by poet Clare Pollard which will help writers develop their work and receive career development support.

  • Amy Ekins-Coward

    Since winning a 2013 New Poets Bursary, Amy has moved several times, both within and outside of the UK. She returned to the North East in late 2016, and has most recently been published in The Rialto. She continues to take courses with The Poetry School, having participated in the development programme with Clare Pollard as part of the New Poets Award.

    Online
    amyekins.wixsite.com/amy-ekins-coward
    @AmyEWrites

  • Andrew Fentham

    Andrew Fentham has been published in English and translation in various magazines and poetry anthologies in the UK, Ireland, and France. Born in Birmingham, he now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, he was awarded a New Poets Bursary to help him develop his first collection of work. The bursary, worth £1,800, will allow him to participate in a development programme produced by The Poetry School and led by poet Clare Pollard which will help writers develop their work and receive career development support.

  • Jenny Hockey

    Jenny Hockey has lived in Sheffield for the last 14 years and belongs to a number of poetry writing and reading groups. She helps run Writers in the Bath, a monthly venue where writers from all over the UK give readings. She continues to publish in magazines such as The North, The Interpreter’s House, Magma, Orbis and Dreamcatcher. Jenny is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield; she reviews poetry collections and writes memoir as well as poems. Away from her desk she cycles, walks, sews, knits and relaxes with craft. She has been active in the campaign to save Sheffield’s street trees and was arrested for the first time last year at the age of 70.

  • David Keyworth

    David Keyworth was awarded Salford University’s Write North-West poetry prize in 2012, and has been published in the SHOp, Smiths Knoll, and Orbis. His poetry has been included anthologies published by Erbacce Press, Cinnamon Press and Templar Poetry. He began an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University in September 2016. He also has the NCTJ qualification in journalism and is a freelance parliamentary and political conference reporter.

    At the Northern Writers’ Awards 2013, he was awarded a New Poets Bursary to help him develop his first collection of work. The bursary, worth £1,800, allowed him to participate in a development programme produced by The Poetry School and led by poet Clare Pollard. It helped David to develop his work and he received career development support.

    Online
    David Keyworth