Waterstones partners with Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award

Waterstones is partnering with the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award to celebrate the best emerging talent in the UK and Ireland, hosting exclusive accompanying content across all its channels. 

The chain will be celebrating the shortlisted and winning authors for 2021 with bespoke content across all of its channels, including a specially commissioned piece for its blog, YouTube channel and Waterstones Plus newsletter, which reaches more than one million subscribers, alongside in-store point-of-sale displays to showcase this year’s young writers.  

Bea Carvalho, Waterstones head of fiction, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and look forward to working closely together to spread the word about this brilliant prize and the talented young writers which it celebrates. The award’s roster of past winners represents some of the best and brightest literary stars of the past 30 years: we can’t wait to see who the judges have selected to join this prestigious list, and to share their work with our customers.” 

Today’s announcement comes as the prize, which is marking its 30th anniversary, prepares for its first year with new sponsors, the Charlotte Aitken Trust, running on a changed January to February timeline. The trust’s support has enabled the prize to significantly extend its core mission of supporting and developing young literary voices, and has doubled this year’s prize fund, with winners receiving £10,000, and £1,000 going to each of the shortlistees. 

Renamed as the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award, it has a number of other partners, alongside Waterstones. The University of Warwick offers a residency to each year’s winner, the London Library offers two years’ free membership to the winner, and one year to each of the shortlisted authors, and the British Council supports the shortlisted writers internationally.  

Andrew Holgate (pictured), Sunday Times literary editor, said: “The Young Writer Award’s new sponsorship with the Charlotte Aitken Trust has re-energised the prize, as is evidenced by this new partnership with Waterstones, which is a thrilling extension of what we’re trying to achieve in taking new young voices to as wide an audience as possible. All three of us — the Sunday Times, the Charlotte Aitken Trust, and Waterstones — share a belief in extending the boundaries of literature, and we’re hugely excited by this new partnership.”  

Sebastian Faulks, author and chair of the Charlotte Aitken Trust, commented: “The trust is delighted to hear that Waterstones will not only be helping the winners to reach a wider audience but helping us in the encouragement of young writers across the country. This is a core part of what we are trying to do.”  The trust was formed in tribute to Charlotte Aitken, the daughter of Gillon Aitken, a literary agent and major figure in the publishing industry. It aims to continue Gillon’s work of encouraging literary talent.