Northern Writers’ Awards to become year-round platform for discovering and supporting talent 

The Northern Writers’ Awards 2023 will be staggered throughout the year to “provide a year-round platform to support Northern writing talent and allow writers to enter work into multiple strands”. 

Founded by New Writing North in 2000, the Northern Writers’ Awards exist to recognise talent and support new work towards publication or broadcast. Judges for this year’s awards include the writers Anthony Anaxagorou, Caroline Bird, Sairish Hussain, Zaffar Kunial, Ross Raisin and Adelle Stripe, and agent Lucy Irvine.

More than 2,000 writers enter the awards each year, a number which is set to grow as the awards evolve into a yearly platform.

Will Mackie, senior programme manager (talent development) and programme leader (MA in publishing), said: “Each year we welcome entries from across the North of England and are beguiled, delighted and stunned by the creative work we receive. We’re lucky to live in a region so bursting with imagination and writing talent. Not only are we seeing such high-quality work, we’re also pleasantly overwhelmed by the numbers of submissions we receive and so this year have developed a staggered portfolio that we’re confident will both showcase the benefits of individual awards while also lengthening and deepening our offer to writers.”

The Northern Writers’ Awards offer a wide range of support and opportunities for writers at all stages of their careers, including publication, mentoring, manuscript assessment, writing placements, retreats and cash awards to buy time to write. A new addition to the 2023 awards is Writing Weekends at Lockhaugh Farm, open to winners of Northern Début Awards. The awards are open for entry now, close in February, and can be found here.