Press release
EMBARGOED until Sunday 3 May 2009, 3pm
Northern Writers’ Awards 2009
Seven North East writers win a share of £25,000 prize fund
Seven writers from across the region will receive awards of between £2,500 and £5,000 to support their works in progress via the annual Northern Writers’ Awards. The awards are given to both talented new writers and to established writers.
The awards were announced at a special ceremony during the Hexham Book Festival on Sunday 3 May. The writers share a prize pot of £25,000, which is made available through sponsorship from the Leighton Group and Arts Council England. The judges were impressed with this year’s submissions which totalled 240, a nearly 70% rise on the previous year.
Time to Write Awards go to Rebecca Jenkins, from Barnard Castle, who is currently working on her new novel, Gentleman Jo and the Radical; and Marion Husband, a fiction writer from Stockton on Tees, whose previous novels have been published by Teesside-based Mudfog Press and Accent Press.
Pippa Little was selected as the recipient of this year’s Andrew Waterhouse Award, which is named in memory of poet Andrew Waterhouse, who died in 2001. The award aims to give special support to a poet whose work shows great promise.
Sarah Shaw, from Derwentside, won the Andrea Badenoch Prize for her collection of short stories. This annual award was established by the family and friends of Andrea Badenoch, a gifted novelist who died of breast cancer at the height of her literary career.
Lorna Elliott, a qualified barrister and solicitor who left law to write, and Richard Rippon, a laboratory analyst, both won Northern Promise Awards for their novels in progress and were singled out by awards judge and literary agent Carole Blake for particular praise.
Carole said: “Because of the vast amount of reading in my job, I have to be really impressed by something if I’m going to pick it out of a pile of submissions and really want to read more of it, but both of these entries intrigued and impressed me. It’s a testament to the scheme that these writers are now supported by New Writing North, and have an industry-recognised award.”
Also picking up a Northern Promise Award, given to recognise and support outstanding new writing from the region, was Weardale poet Pru Kitching, whose first collection, All Aboard the Moving Staircase, was published by Vane Women Press.
The winners each receive grants of between £2,500 and £5,000 to support their works in progress.
The judges for 2009 were literary agent Carole Blake, director of Blake Friedmann Agency, and Chris and Jen Hamilton-Emery, directors of Salt Publishing. The Northern Writers’ Awards are supported by Arts Council England North East and sponsored by The Leighton Group.
ends
All of the winning writers and New Writing North’s Director Claire Malcolm are available for interview. Please contact Olivia Mantle, Projects and Marketing Officer at New Writing North, on 0191 222 1332 or email olivia@newwritingnorth.com.
Notes for editors:
• New Writing North is the writing development agency for the north east of England, and opened in 1996. The agency works with writers from to develop their career opportunities through new commissions, projects, residencies, publications and live events. NWN works in partnership with a broad range of organisations, universities, local authorities, regional development agencies, sponsors and media producers to develop opportunities for writers in the North East.
• The Northern Writers’ Awards celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with a new £30,000 sponsorship deal from the Sunderland-based Leighton Group. The first awards were announced in 2000, and since then over 80 writers have received support ranging from £1,500 to £10,000 to move their writing on. From research undertaken in 2007, over 75% of previous winners have gone on to publish work that was supported by the awards.
