ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED TO ENTRIES

  1. Entries are not judged anonymously but in conjunction with a short biography of your writing life to date.
  2. There is no age restriction, as the awards will be judged on the applicants’ writing abilities.
  3. Entries must be a new (less than two years old) piece of writing.
  4. Entries must be typed (handwritten entries will not be judged) on standard A4 paper, single spaced in Arial 12pt. Do not use staples, paperclips or any form of binding on your entry.
  5. Entries that exceed the stated maximum word count will not be judged.
  6. All entries must be aimed at adults; work aimed at children will not be judged.
  7. Entries must be written in English.
  8. Entries may have been entered in competitions elsewhere.
  9. To be eligible, writers must not have had a dedicated publication of their work in their entry category (i.e. a novel or collection of poems or short stories). They may have had work published as part of an anthology, included in a literary magazine or published via self-publishing or the Internet.
  10. Writers may be published in a different category to the one they are entering (i.e. a published poet may enter an extract from a novel in the fiction category).
  11. Writers must be proven to be resident in the UK and committed to the award until 31/09/08. This is to ensure the writers may benefit from the New Writing Ventures development programme, which forms part of the award. 
  12. You may enter more than once and in more than one category. An entry fee of £12.50 is payable for each entry.
  13. Joint entries will not be eligible.
  14. Entries on behalf of an author who is deceased will not be eligible.
  15. Entries from employees of The New Writing Partnership or Booktrust are not eligible.
  16. Entries must be under your own name and home address; pen names and c/o addresses will not be eligible.
  17. Only the original entry will be judged; later substitutes or changes requested by the entrant will not be accepted.
  18. Entries that do not correspond with the eligibility criteria will be returned. Any subsequent re-submission must be received by the closing date.
  19. Entries must be received by the closing date, entries postmarked with the closing date will not be accepted.
  20. The decision of the judges is final.

ENTRIES

To enter for the New Writing Ventures Awards please send:

  • A completed entry form including a valid email address.
  • A short biography of your writing life. Maximum of 300 words. Two copies please.
  • Fiction entry: Maximum of 3000 words. (This may be an extract from a novel, or a short story).Two copies please
  • Creative non-fiction entry: Maximum of 3000 words. Two copies please.
  • Poetry entry: Between 5-10 poems.  Maximum of 2000 words in total. Please include a title list of the poems entered. Two copies please.
  • A non-refundable cheque for £12.50 (to cover administrative costs) made payable to Booktrust must accompany each entry.  Please note that no manuscript will be returned, so entrants are encouraged not to enter original works, only copies.
  • If you require acknowledgement of receipt, please enclose an SAE.

Contact Tarryn McKay at Booktrust: 020 8516 2972, tarryn@booktrust.org.uk with any queries.
Click to download an entry form as PDF or Word document.