London Writers Awards to return in 2025 thanks to £50k donation

London literature development agency Spread the Word has announced that the London Writers Awards, which aim to increase the number of writers from under-represented communities being taken up by agents and publishers, will return in 2025 thanks to a philanthropic donation of £50,000.

The London Writers Awards originally ran from 2018 to 2022 thanks to funding from Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, plus sponsorship from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).

The next iteration of the awards has been made possible by a donation from Sam and Rosie Berwick and will run annually for three years from 2025 to 2027.

Sam Berwick said: "Rosie and I have had the great fortune to have worked with Spread the Word for the past two years, and we can’t say strongly enough what a great experience that has been. Being able to help them bring back such a critical project as the London Writers Award is now a huge privilege for us. The arts are more important than ever in defining who we are and what we will become as human beings. And yet, as the cost of living crisis continues and governments and others cut back on their funding of the arts, many of those that create this art and literature find themselves unable to find the time and space to do so.

"We look forward to helping Spread the Word to help writers in this position and we would kindly call strongly and hopefully persuasively for both individuals and foundations to join us in further helping them and similar organisations in growing projects like the London Writers Awards.”

The programme will be open to writers of literary, commercial and YA/children’s fiction. Previous winners include Natasha Brown, Cecile Pin, Tice Cin, Tom Newlands, Pam Williams, Ashani Lewis and Santanu Bhattacharya.

Each year, the London Writers Awards will support 24 writers through a 10-month programme of masterclasses, industry days, one-on-one support and critical feedback groups. Built into the programme are active conversations about what it means to be a writer from an under-represented community entering an industry that remains predominantly white, male and middle class.

With a baseline target of 33%, the wwards aim to actively increase the number of writers on a low income progressing their creative careers through providing an enhanced bursary and access fund offer, and to “provide holistic and on-going creative and career support and community building for writers through its alumni network and developing tutors programme".

A Writers & Readers Salon is also set to open in autumn 2024 to showcase published alumni and connect them to readers.

Ruth Harrison, director of Spread the Word, said: “The progress made in 2020 to support writers from diverse backgrounds has stalled with the most recent data suggesting that the industry is not backing Black writers to the same levels of the pandemic years and in some cases, such as children’s books, representation of ethnic minorities has fallen. For four years the London Writers Awards gave high-quality, sustained support to 120 writers and launched the careers of a multitude of writers. We’re delighted to bring the programme back for another three years, as we look to consolidate the programme’s position as the leading development programme in the UK.”

Applications for entries will open from 12pm (midday) on Wednesday 25th September 2024 until 5pm on Thursday 31st October 2024.