New Writing Ventures, the awards that offer creative support and prepare writers for publication, is open for entries for 2007 on Thursday 19 April.  Offering £3,000 to each winner in the categories of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction, as well as a year-long creative mentoring programme with The Literary Consultancy, and £1,000 to the runners up, New Writing Ventures has a proven track record of achieving results. 

Through a programme of mentoring and a high-profile awards ceremony in London, this is the only prize which brings publishers and agents direct to the writers’ doors. As part of the prize package, New Writing Ventures will introduce winning and shortlisted writers to the movers and shakers of the publishing world through its exclusive networking event. Writers will also have their work sent out to personally selected contacts, assisting in the tricky process of looking for a deal. 

The last two year’s awards have already seen positive results:

• Eleanor Thom, winner of the 2006 fiction award, was signed up to the literary agent, A M Heath just weeks after the shortlist was announced.  Says Euan Thorneycroft of A M Heath: “Eleanor Thom is a hugely talented young writer and I'm really excited about the novel. She's still working on it but the bits I have read more than live up to the submission she made to the New Writing Ventures scheme. She's definitely a talent to watch out for”.
• Liz Diamond has been signed up by Maria Rejt of Picador in a six-figure two-book deal.  Liz was shortlisted for the 2005 Creative Non-Fiction New Writing Ventures Award and went on to take part in a year-long development programme. Rejt comments: “At a time in the industry when new authors can struggle to find a nurturing and supportive home, The New Writing Partnership offers crucial mentoring and support.  I wish this important initiative continuing and growing success.”
• In addition, two other writers from 2005 have been signed up by agents and the winner of the poetry award, Valeria Melchioretto, has a collection of poetry coming out this year. Several other writers from the 2006 Awards are in discussions with agents and publishers.

The 2007 awards are open for entry from 19 April. Closing date is Thursday 31 May 2007. The winners of the 2007 awards will announced at a ceremony in September, now acknowledged as an essential date in the diary of agents and publishers scouting for new writing talent.

The high profile line-up of judges for the three awards is:

• Fiction: novelist, Louise Doughty; novelist and teacher, Ardashir Vakil; and Literary Editor of the Daily Mirror, Henry Sutton.
• Poetry: poet and teacher, Mimi Khalvati; poet and author, Owen Sheers; writer and Literary Editor of The Times, Erica Wagner.
• Creative Non-Fiction: writer and journalist, Giles Foden; journalist, birder and author, Mark Cocker; and Vesna Goldsworthy, writer and lecturer in English at University College London.
  
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Notes to Editors

• For further information about the writers and for interviews contact Colman Getty.
• Chris Gribble, Chief Executive of The New Writing Partnership, is available for interview.
• The New Writing Ventures Awards are a strand of The New Writing Partnership, a collaboration between the City of Norwich, the County of Norfolk, University of East Anglia and Arts Council England, East. They are administered by the independent charity, Booktrust (www.booktrust.org.uk).
• The two shortlisted writers in the three categories receive a prize of £1000 each .
• A selections of work by previous winners and shortlisted writers can be viewed online at www.newwritingpartnership.org.uk/ventures.
• More information about The Literary Consultancy can be found at www.literaryconsultancy.co.uk.
• Photographs and logos are available from Colman Getty.

Further information:
Mark Hutchinson or Jane Acton
Colman Getty
Tel: 020 7631 2666
Email: firstname@colmangetty.co.uk