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Spread the Word and Wellcome Collection launch Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Award
Spread the Word and Wellcome Collection have launched the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards worth £2,000, following a successful pilot programme.
The new project aims to find and support writers from under-represented groups, who have a big idea for a non-fiction book for general readers, that engages with the themes of health and being human. The pilot ran in 2022.
Applications will open on 1st October for adult writers who are UK-based, unpublished and unagented. and identify as disabled and/or global majority. Up to six writers will be selected for a nine-month development programme to expand their non-fiction ideas to full-length book proposals. Applications will close at 5pm on 11th November.
Science journalist and author Angela Saini will judge alongside writer Daisy Lafarge and the programme will offer each writer a £2,000 bursary, mentoring with an author, five masterclasses on writing non-fiction, insight and industry days and the opportunity to meet with agents. There will also be a public programme of masterclasses and panel events to offer a wider range of support to aspiring non-fiction writers.
Each writer will also be offered one-to-one sessions with Wellcome Collection’s publishing team, research specialists and Stories editorial teams. In addition, aspiring writers can enjoy access to Wellcome Collection’s library, a free resource with thousands of books, archives and manuscripts exploring personal and cultural relationships with health and medicine. Wellcome Collection will have first refusal on the projects.
The book project should have a central theme that engages with some aspect of medicine, health, illness or identity. This can cover many genres of writing – including science, medicine, memoir, social or cultural history, essay or polemic. Examples published under the Wellcome Collection imprint include Disobedient Bodies by Emma Dabiri, Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet, Divided by Annabel Sowemimo and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.
Prize organisers said: “At some point, health, illness and medicine touch all our lives. Writing that finds stories in those moments adds new meaning to what it means to be human... In keeping with its vision and goals, the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards aim to change whose stories and work is published in the UK.”
Possible themes could include the climate crisis, mental health, physical illness, health equity, the body, infection, pain, memory, identity, social histories, medical justice and decolonising health.
Saini said of her judging role: “It’s vitally important to get voices from the margins into the mainstream, and I’m beyond excited to read the work of this year’s cohort.”
Ruth Harrison, director of Spread the Word, said: “We’re delighted to be working again with Wellcome Collection following the hugely successful pilot in 2022. For 2025, we’ll be running an expanded programme with a closer focus on accessibility and integration across Wellcome Collection’s different teams, plus a new public programme to support aspiring non-fiction writers from under-represented communities.”
Fran Barrie, publisher at Wellcome Collection, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Spread the Word again to support more brilliant writers to develop their big ideas on health. We need books that represent the wide diversity of human experiences and perspectives, so we’re working to make the programme as accessible as possible.”
There will be a free BSL interpreted online seminar with a Q&A for people interested in applying on 8th October.
For more information, visit the Spread the Word website.
