Hachette creates new award for northern children's writers

Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) and New Writing North (NWN) are creating a new award for debut children’s writers from the North of England. 

The prize is aimed at debut writers of middle-grade and young teen fiction who currently live and work in the North of England. At stake is a publishing deal for their book with the Hachette Children’s Group, whose fiction list includes authors such as David Almond (Skellig), Cressida Cowell (Wizards of Once and the How To Train Your Dragon series), Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor), Will Mabbitt (Embassy of the Dead), and Patrice Lawrence (Orange Boy).

The award, which will feature as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards 2019, opens for entries in November with a NWN and HCG Writing for Children Roadshow for writers in the North. The winner will then be announced the following June. 

Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, said: “The Northern Writers’ Awards are supported by a range of strong industry partnerships and these relationships are growing and developing each year. Our partnership with Hachette Children’s Group is a brilliant way to fast-track talented northern writers towards publication and together broaden the offer of work available to young readers.”  

Hilary Murray Hill, c.e.o. of the Hachette Children’s Group, added: “This partnership is extremely important to us and our mission to publish a broad range of books for children, from the widest range of voices, and with a variety of illustration styles. Each year, our Carmelite Picture Book Prize finds new illustration talent from undergraduate students of illustration across the UK and now the Hachette Children’s Novel Award will find the best new voices for young readers, from writers in the North. I have long admired the work of New Writing North in identifying some of the best unpublished writing in the country and am delighted we are now working together.”