HOW TO ENTER FOR AN AWARD
 
 
 

THE NORTHERN ROCK FOUNDATION WRITER’S AWARD 2006

New Writing North, in partnership with The Northern Rock Foundation, is delighted to announce the call for entries for the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award 2006.

The award offers unparalleled life support for one writer at the level of £20,000 a year for a three-year period, making it worth a total of £60,000. The award is currently the largest literary prize in the UK and the only one that is dedicated to supporting regional achievement.

The award was created with the recognition that many published writers have to undertake a variety of other work to support their creative writing. It offers the chance for writers to be liberated from other work commitments that may limit their writing time. The award honours literary achievement and supports writers to maximise their creativity. The Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award is unlike most other prizes in that it supports the creative work of an individual writer over a substantial length of time rather than giving recognition to just one book retrospectively.

The award is for writers who have already demonstrated their talent through the publication of two or more books with a recognised publisher. It is open to writers of both literary and genre fiction, poetry and biography and for writers of literature for children and young people. The award is for writers who live and work predominantly in the north east of England (Tees Valley, Tyneside, County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria).

Since its creation in 2002, the award has established itself as one of the major literary awards in the UK. Any writer who meets the criteria for entry can put themselves forward for the award and each year a strong range of work is submitted.

The award sits at the heart of a thriving literature scene in the north east of England. It was established to support writers and to offer investment support for the continued development of the region as a uniquely supportive place for creative people to live and work.

THE JUDGES FOR THE 2006 AWARD

MAGGIE GEE
Maggie Gee has written ten acclaimed novels, most recently My Cleaner, which The Times called “superb and pitiless... elegant, humorous and surprising". Her eighth, The White Family, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the International Impac award, and The Flood was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Maggie Gee reviews for The Independent, the Telegraph and The Sunday Times and is the first female chair of the Royal Society of Literature.

DON PATERSON
Don Paterson's last collection of poetry, Landing Light, won the TS Eliot and Whitbread Poetry prizes. A book of aphorism, The Book of Shadows, appeared in 2004. He works as a musician and editor, teaches at the University of St Andrews, and lives in Kirriemuir, Angus.

DJ TAYLOR
DJ Taylor is the author of five novels, including English Settlement, which won a Grinzane Cavour Prize, Trespass, and The Comedy Man, and a collection of short stories, After Bathing At Baxter's. A new novel, Kept: A Victorian Mystery appears in spring 2006. His non-fiction includes After the War: The Novel and England Since 1945, and two biographies: Thackeray and Orwell: The Life, which won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Prize. He is currently working on a book about the 'Bright Young People' of the late 1920s. DJ Taylor's journalism appears in a variety of publications. He lives in Norwich with his wife and their three children.

FIONA ELLIS
The Director of the Northern Rock Foundation, Fiona Ellis, will chair the panel of judges.


 
     
  HOW TO ENTER FOR AN AWARD

The award will be made to the most outstanding application from a writer based on the literary merit of the work that is submitted and on the quality of the writer’s previous published work.

The Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award is worth £60,000. This amount is payable over three years at a rate of £20,000 a year.

You may enter for the award if you meet the following criteria:

  • If you live and work in Tyne and Wear, the Tees Valley, County Durham, Northumberland or Cumbria and have done so for at least three years.
  • If you are a writer of poetry, prose, children’s fiction or biography and if you have a track record of publication with a recognised publisher. (Work published by independent presses, which is available nationally, qualifies.)
  • If you have published at least two novels, collections of poetry, short stories or biography. (Please note that previous published work that is not literary in nature does not count.)
How to apply for an award

To apply for an award you must send the following as your submission:

1. A letter of application

This letter must include the following information: your name, address, telephone and email contacts; information on how long you have lived in the region and details of other support that you have received for your work (awards, prizes, bursaries etc). The letter must also include information on what you would seek to give up if you won the award and how it would help to support your career as a writer. Please send just one copy of this letter.

2. Work in progress

Please send up to 10,000 words of fiction or up to 20 pages of poems. This work should be taken from your current work in progress.

This work must be supported by the following items: an outline of the novel/collection of poems that you have submitted; a statement which describes the current status of the work that you have submitted (for example, is it under commission to a publisher and if so what is the deal? If it is not under commission, is publication likely? When are you likely to complete the work?) Also include a biography, which details your published work and career as a writer. Please send five copies of the above.

Please note:

  • It is possible for writers to apply for both a Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award and a Northern Writers’ Award at the same time. If the winner of the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award has also entered work for a Northern Writers’ Award scheme, their application will be withdrawn from the latter scheme.
  • The judges’ decision is final and the administrators of the scheme will not enter into any correspondence with unsuccessful applicants about the judging process.
  • The work you submit does not have to be of a ‘northern’ flavour or have a ‘northern’ theme.
  • Writers who are writing books set in geographical areas covered by the scheme but who do not live in the region do not qualify for entry.
  • Writers who are submitting an application to support a change of direction in their work (eg, poets who want to develop a novel) are strongly advised that they should submit work that demonstrates their ability to write in this new form.
  • The recipient will be expected to attend and accept the award at the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award ceremony in Newcastle upon Tyne on the evening of Thursday 30 th March 2006 and to be available for press interviews that week. If the recipient cannot attend or is unavailable that week, the offer of the award may be withdrawn.
  • The Northern Rock Foundation and New Writing North retain the right to withdraw an award on the following grounds: if it is discovered that a writer has fabricated information in their application; if the recipient relocates away from the region during the first year of their award or relocates abroad full-time within the three-year term of the award and if, during the time of their award, the recipient performs any act which in public or in print discredits the award, the award's sponsors or other writers who are in receipt of the award.
  • Do not send your application by email or by fax. If you do it will not be accepted.

Deadline for receipt of applications

Submissions for the award can be made to New Writing North up until 12 noon on Monday 30 January 2006.

Please send your submission via recorded delivery to:

Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award
New Writing North
2 School Lane
Whickham
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE16 4SL