Atuona, Cathcart and Suzelle win Early Career Bursaries for London Writers

Sheila Atuona, C E Cathcart and Selina Suzelle have been announced as the recipients of the 2023 Early Career Bursaries for London Writers, organised by Spread the Word.  

The bursary – which is awarded to unagented and unpublished writers who are on a low income – aims to support career progression with no expectation of a defined output. Each writer is awarded a bursary of £15,000, with £10,000 being awarded as cash and £5,000 towards talent development, including mentoring. 

Atuona will use the bursary to develop her short story collection, Onitsha, while Cathcart will use it to work on her novel, Maudlin. Non-fiction writer Suzelle will use the bursary to develop her autobiographical project.

The 2023 judges were Tice Cin, Jeffrey Boakye, Luan Goldie and Dr Mark Blacklock.

Goldie said: “Being a judge for the Early Career Bursaries was a huge privilege. I was blown away by the quality of work and how wide it ranged in terms of genre, topic and voice. I’m so excited to see what these talented writers do next and praise Spread the Word for helping writers break down barriers.”

Sam and Rosie Berwick, whose philanthropic donation makes the bursaries possible, commented: “Both of us are delighted that the first year of this project has kicked off with three such incredible writers. We wish them all the best as they develop their writing over the next year and we look forward to watching with huge interest how things progress.”

Ruth Harrison, director of Spread the Word, added: “The Early Career Bursaries programme is a timely and critical intervention that responds to the challenges working class writers and writers on a low income face in progressing their creative work and careers. There is an urgent need to invest in and support early stage writers, particularly those from marginalised communities, if we want to make a real difference to writers and the stories we get to read and hear.”