New Writing North has announced the winners of the Northern Writers’ Awards 2019.
The 2019 judges included the poet Don Paterson; publisher Ellah Wakatama Allfrey; editor Helen Thomas; literary agents Mark Stanton and Jo Unwin; novelists Sita Brahmachari and Carmen Marcus; and journalists Richard Benson and Chitra Ramaswamy.
With close to 1600 entrants, 2019 was the most competitive year yet for the programme and our judges really had their work cut out for them.
There are several new awards in 2019, including the Hachette Children’s Novel Award, which was awarded to James Harris from Middlesbrough. James wins an advance of £5000 as part of a publishing contract with Hachette Children’s Books.
Another new award is the NorthBound Book Award, which is sponsored by University of Central Lancashire, and which was awarded to Juliana Mensah from Gateshead. Juliana wins £5000 plus publication with Saraband.
Also new to the awards this year is the Sid Chaplin Award, which is supported by the family of Sid Chaplin, the North Literary Agency and Newcastle University. The award was open to working-class writers and has been awarded to Lyndsey Skinner from Newcastle to support the completion of her first novel, Snowflake, which explores what it means to be a working-class millennial.
Congratulations to all of our winners!
The list of 2019 winners in full is:
Northern Writers’ Awards for Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction: Tara Guha
Northern Writers’ Awards for Poetry: Rommi Smith; Sam Buchan-Watts; Penny Boxall
Hachette Children’s Novel Award: James Harris
NorthBound Book Award: Juliana Mensah
New North Poets programme: Penny Newell; Freya Jackson; Charlotte Wetton; Sarah Wimbush
Northern Debut Awards: Catharine Johnson; Jane Bradley; Leigh Goodall
TLC Free Reads Scheme: Eirinie Lapidaki; Shaun Wilson; Julie Noble
The Sid Chaplin Award: Winner: Lyndsey Skinner; Highly Commended: Christopher Fallow
Northumbria University Student and Alumni Award: Allison Adkins
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Bonafide Films Adam Bennett-Lea
Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Lime Pictures: Joshua Halm
Word Factory Apprentice Award: Melissa Wan
Andrea Badenoch Fiction Award: Sarah Corbett
Arvon Award: Sarah Dunnakey
Young Northern Writer Award: Winner: Ciah White; Highly Commended: Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith
Matthew Hale Award: Matthew Schofield
The Northern Writers’ Awards exist to recognise talent and support new work towards publication or broadcast, with £55,000 worth of awards for writers at different stages of their careers, including mentoring, developmental support and cash awards to buy time to write. They are the largest writer development programme in England.
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