Jericho Prize to expand with Scholastic as #Merky Books' New Writers' prize also returns

Two prizes seeking to discover underrepresented literary talent, #Merky Books’ New Writers’ Prize and the Jericho Prize, are returning this year.

The Jericho Prize is a competition for unpublished and self-published Black-British children’s writers that launched last year, while #Merky Books’ New Writers’ Prize – now in its third year – is an annual writing competition that aims to discover unpublished, underrepresented writers aged 16 to 30 from the UK and Ireland.

Using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Jericho Prize aims to showcase talented British writers of African or Caribbean descent. 

The prize will be judged by professionals from across the book industry with children’s editor and deputy features editor at The Bookseller Caroline Carpenter, librarian and former Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway judge Stella Hine  and Simone Taylor, assistant editor of illustrated Books at Scholastic UK. 

Founder, former teacher and educational book editor Fabia Turner, has also decided to extend the project’s support by offering more targeted development opportunities via free writing workshops, reading groups and increased mentoring for all finalists. 

She said: “Although the 2021 Jericho Prize was a huge success, I knew we needed to support Black writers in a more sustained way. We are thrilled to be collaborating with Scholastic UK as they are working to actively increase the pool of Black-British children’s writers and share our aim to give them access to knowledge and opportunities within the UK picture book industry. We’re looking forward to working with Simone and the team at Scholastic UK and will share exciting updates about their involvement in the coming weeks. 

“Alanna Max is also back this year, with the brilliant Anna McQuinn along with new mentor Natascha Beibow from The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) sharing their expertise in picture books. Additionally, we are immensely proud that Ken Wilson-Max from Alanna Max is now our patron. Ken is an inspirational role model for aspiring Black writers who will help them realise they too deserve to be seen within the children’s books space.

‘We have also selected three writers from our 2021 cohort to receive mentoring from experienced children’s authors. Luke Elliott, Temitope Olaniyan and Jasette Amos will start their mentorships this summer and we’re excited to see how they get on."

The 2022–23 award will focus solely on picture books and, as before, manuscripts must feature an authentically drawn Black lead character. There is no short chapter book category this year.

The prize package has been extended considerably and the overall winner will receive a guaranteed publishing contract from Scholastic UK, with a £1,500 author advance plus mentoring,  a 12-month scholarship membership with the SCBWI plus a 12-month membership to the Society of Authors including unlimited access to its resources, industry guides and advisors.

Turner added: “As well as funding which covers seven writer mentorships in total, and the amazing support from book publishers, we wouldn’t be able to deliver such a fantastic package without the help of the SCBWI, the Society of Authors and Peters. Peters has partnered with us to supply our wonderful book prizes this year.

Crucially we are also collaborating with the Black Writers Guild to broaden our reach, ensuring Black writers both in and outside London get to hear about the project.”

The competition is free to enter and the submission window will open on 7th November 2022. Entries can be made online here. Visit the website for full details and for updates regarding workshops, reading groups and more.

For the #Merky Books prize, also now open for applications, writers can submit fiction, non-fiction and poetry, with the winner receiving a publishing contract with Stormzy’s PRH imprint. All shortlisted writers will be invited to a writers’ camp, where they will learn more about the publishing process through writing workshops and panel talks and receive one-to-one feedback from Penguin Random House UK editors and the #Merky Books team.

Over 2,000 submissions were received for the award last year, with previous winners include Hafsa Zayyan, author of We Are All Birds of Uganda, poet Monika Radojevic with her collection Teeth in the Back of my Neck and Jyoti Patel, whose upcoming novel The Things That We Lost publishes in January 2023.

Lemara Lindsay-Prince, senior commissioning editor at #Merky Books, said: “The prize represents the heart of what we do – publishing bold voices from untraditional spaces – and providing a platform and literary home for new talent. As always, the prize will have a standout line up of judges – more on that soon – who are excited to read what’s out there. I’m encouraging everyone to apply even if you have the threads of a story, or the first stanza of a poem – your voice matters.”

The deadline for the New Writers’ Prize, now open, is 10th September 2022 and applicants can apply here.