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North East writers urged to put pen to paper

The region’s writers are being urged to put pen to paper and enter this year’s Northern Writers’ Awards. The awards are given each year by New Writing North to support both new and established writers in the North East. Writers who have lived in County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear or Tees Valley for at least a year are encouraged to apply.

Claire Malcolm, Director of New Writing North, said: “Every year we invest around £24,000 in regional writers through these awards, helping them to take time off from other work to concentrate on their writing or supporting new writers to complete work and move towards publication.”

There are two main awards, the Time to Write Award, aimed at supporting established writers who have at least one published work, and the Northern Promise Award, aimed at identifying and supporting new writers who can demonstrate that they are serious about developing a career as a writer. In addition there are two special awards: The Andrea Badenoch Award, open to women fiction writers over the age of 42, and the Andrew Waterhouse Award, created in memory of poet Andrew Waterhouse. This award cannot be specifically applied for. It is given to a poet who enters either the Northern Promise or Time to Write categories who the judges feel is writing in the spirit of Andrew’s life and work.

The deadline for all entries is 10am Monday 11 December 2006. All entrants must be writers of poetry, prose, children’s fiction or literary biography. There are particular submission guidelines available on the New Writing North website.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .