Calibre Audio celebrates 50th anniversary with audiobook writing competition

Audiobook charity Calibre Audio is celebrating its 50th anniversary by launching a competition, Inclusive Voices, for new writers to feature characters with print disabilities in their short stories. 

A print disability is a condition that prevents a person from gaining information from printed material in the standard way so they use alternative methods to access that information.

The charity will run a programme of celebratory interactive activities to mark its half-century anniversary and today has launched Inclusive Voices, a new short story competition to raise print disability awareness and champion new creative voices. The competition is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. 

The first prize winner in each category of the competition, whose winning story will include a print disabled character, will have the opportunity to visit the Calibre Studio in Buckinghamshire to record their story or hear their story being recorded for inclusion in the Calibre Collection. 

The story will be included in the Best Inclusive Voices print book which will also be recorded in audio and winners are invited to attend a prize giving event at the Calibre Conversations Book Festival Live Event at Birmingham Central Library on 21st October 2024. An Echo Dot and Book Tokens will also be included in the prize package. 

Judges for the competition include author, producer of BBC Radio 2’s “Book Club” and host of the “Book Off” podcast Joe Haddow, public speaker and author of augmented reality picture books Pamela Aculey and managing editor of the Week Junior Vanessa Harriss among others.

Anthony Kemp, chief executive of Calibre Audio, has said: “We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved over the last 50 years, helping many thousands of people to enjoy, learn, connect and grow through listening to books. Our members face really diverse challenges caused by their struggles to read print in a world that assumes everyone can. From underachieving at school, feeling left out in friendship groups and navigating the work environment to loneliness and social isolation in later life, our competition seeks to get people thinking about what life can be like for these people through our Inclusive Voices stories. We’d like as many people to get involved as possible and we look forward to sharing the very best of the stories towards the end of the year.” 

Established in 1974, Calibre Audio is an audiobook charity that aims to use the full range of technology to make books accessible to everyone from cassette tapes through to Alexa. The service is free for under-18s and those still in full-time education. 

Entries to the Inclusive Voices competition can be narrative or verse and can be submitted in written, video or audio form. Entries must include a main character with a print disability and be a maximum of 550 words. More details can be found on the Calibre Audio website and submissions close on 31st August.