Prototype Publishing announces new writing prize

Prototype Publishing, along with partners Monitor Books and frieze magazine, has announced the Prototype Prize, a new, bi-annual prize for published or unpublished writers and artists working at the intersections of different literary and artistic forms.

The prize of £3,000 plus publication by Prototype will go to the best book-length project by a writer or artist resident in the UK or Ireland. A second prize of £2,000 plus publication by Monitor Books will be awarded to the best proposal for a short-form work. Both prize-winners will have an excerpt of their work published by frieze.

The judges for the inaugural prize are Bhanu Kapil pictured, Tom McCarthy and Elizabeth Price, who will work alongside an editorial board from the publishers.

Submissions of work that “interrogates the boundaries of established formal, narrative and genre conventions” are encouraged. Fiction, poetry and non-fiction prose are all eligible, with no restrictions on style, form or subject-matter, with interdisciplinary approaches particularly welcomed.

The prize will open for submissions for one month in January 2024. A shortlist of five proposals will be chosen by the judges and announced in June 2024, and the two winners announced at an event at the South London Gallery in September 2024, with both books published in spring 2025. The prize is supported by Shane Akeroyd, Sadie Coles and Emmanuel Roman, and by public funding from Arts Council England.

Prototype publisher Jess Chandler and Monitor publisher Rory Cook said in a joint statement: “As publishers committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition, we have first-hand experience of the challenges of supporting writing that sits between traditional publishing categories.

“We also know that there are many artists and writers working on exceptional projects that deserve publication, and the Prototype Prize aims to find and support the best examples of this work, and to offer its authors support through the completion of the writing process, to the editorial, design and production, and publicity stages."

Vanessa Peterson, associate editor at frieze, said: “frieze magazine is very happy to be involved in this innovative new prize that champions interdisciplinary work. While the number of opportunities for writers in this field are rapidly diminishing, Prototype have become leaders in supporting interdisciplinarity as a dynamic and vital strand of publishing. We’re looking forward to partnering with Prototype by publishing excerpts of the selected winners and finalists.”

The Prototype Prize will run in conjunction with an adjacent development programme in partnership with New Writing North, supporting underrepresented and emerging writers and artists through a six-month long scheme consisting of monthly seminars with leading practitioners, and editorial development and group feedback sessions. This programme is open for submissions from 13th September until 23rd October 2023.