Nine Dots Prize offers $100k and CUP book deal

The winner of a new prize that asks the question "are digital technologies making politics impossible?" will win $100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press (CUP).

The Nine Dots Prize, funded by the charity the Kadas Prize Foundation, is named after a lateral thinking puzzle and was created to encourage “innovative thinking” when addressing problems in the modern world. It is open to anyone aged 18 years or over writing in English, and submissions from both new voices and experienced authors are eligible.

To enter, people are asked to respond to the set question in 3,000 words and provide an outline structure showing how, if they win, they would develop their argument into a book.

The prize will be judged by a 12-strong board, chaired by professor Simon Goldhill, who is director of the centre for research in the arts, social sciences and humanities (CRASSH), as well as professor in Greek literature and culture and fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.

Goldhill said: “This is an incredibly exciting and unique opportunity for thinkers to table big ideas that have the potential to change the world. The board will be looking for entries that display originality in everything from the ideas put forward to the ways in which those ideas are communicated.

“Respondents are entirely free to critique, agree or disagree with, or reject the premise of the question, but they must engage with it fully and insightfully.”

Entries must be submitted via the Nine Dots Prize website by 31st January 2017. The winner will be announced in May.

A new question, to win the next Nine Dots Prize, will be set in two years time.