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Northern Writers’ Awards

Established in 2000, the Northern Writers’ Awards supports work-in-progress by new, emerging and established writers across the North of England. The Awards support writers creatively as they develop their work towards publication, as well as helping them to progress professionally and navigate their way through the publishing industry.

The awards are produced by New Writing North with support from Northumbria University and Arts Council England and a range of publishing and media partners.

At a glance

Work in progress

The Northern Writers’ Awards recognise work in progress. Winning an award can buy time to complete work or can lead to development opportunities with New Writing North and some of our literature and broadcast sector partners, including Channel 4, Hachette Children’s Group, Saraband, Arvon, and The Literary Consultancy.

Judges

The judges for the Northern Writers’ Awards change each year to ensure a mix of taste and opinions is reflected across the awards. For the Northern Writers’ Awards 2022 the judges include Anthony Anaxagorou, Helen Mort, Doug Johnstone, Tahmima Anam, Katy Massey Wendy Erskine and Ben Myers.

Talent Network

In addition to the individual programmes of each award strand, all Northern Writers’ Awards winners will receive ongoing support as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards Talent Network. This support will be designed around your individual requirements as a writer and will help you to identify your personal goals and work towards them.

Helping writers achieve their creative ambitions

Since 2000, the Northern Writers’ Awards have recognised more than 300 writers from the North of England. We are committed to supporting new work in progress and nurturing new talent. We read over 1500 entries each year and our judges – leading writers and industry professionals – seek writing that can be supported towards publication or broadcast.

Often, winning an award is just the beginning of the relationship that writers will go on to have with New Writing North. We work to help writers achieve their creative ambitions. The Northern Writers’ Awards are not just for new and emerging writers; we also support new work by established writers, particularly those whose work is changing direction. As well as introductions to agents and publishers, we can offer advice and further support over the long term. We also support the next generation of writers, and offer a range of awards for young people aged 18 and under.

The awards have a fantastic track-record of identifying and supporting talented writers. Past recipients of Northern Writers’ Awards include Ben Myers, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Andrew McMillan, Okechukwu Nzelu, Carys Davies, Zaffar Kunial, Mari Hannah, Dima Alzayat, Polly Atkin and Kit Fan.

Full details of the awards and previous winners can be found at www.northernwritersawards.com.

Get involved

Northern Writers’ Awards 2022

The Northern Writers’ Awards are open to writers in the North of England and there is £50,000 worth of support up for grabs including publication, mentoring and cash prizes.

The 2022 winners will be announced on 5 July 2022.

Find out more »

Eligibility and entry criteria

We accept works of poetry, fiction of all genres, children’s fiction, creative non-fiction, Young Adult fiction, short stories, and children’s picture books from writers living full-time in the North of England. We also have awards for new television writers.

See the FAQs and eligibility guidelines »

Support the awards

We are incredibly grateful to the individual donors who help fund the Northern Writers’ Awards and many of the awards strands would not be possible without their support.

If you value new writing and want to support writers in the North of England, please consider making a donation at JustGiving.

 

Donate to the awards »

Andrew McMillan talks about how winning a Northern Writers’ Award has helped him.

Jayshree Patel, winner of the 2016 Channel 4/Northumbria University Writing for Television Award, talks about what the Northern Writers’ Awards has done for her career.

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