Writers and Artists launches literary prize for working class writers

Writers and Artists is launching the inaugural W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize in partnership with author Natasha Carthew. 

To be eligible, writers must consider themselves to be from a working class background, be over 18 and living in the UK and not have a current publishing contract or agent. To enter writers need to submit, a piece of prose of no more than 2,000 words, a synopsis, if you have it, to match your current work-in-progress and a description of up to 200 words, outlining your writing background and how you self-identify as a working-class writer. 

Carthew, who will judge the prize, said: “I wanted to get involved with the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize because I believe it is incredibly important that prizes and opportunities exist for working-class writers to ensure our stories are not only told, but celebrated on a broad stage. It’s incredibly important to tell and hear stories from a working- class perspective in order to reflect our forgotten corner of diversity and to empower instead of isolate. We need more compelling and believable stories with true representations of different economic backgrounds that can provide both truth and hope. Prizes such as this one are incredibly important; I know this is the start of something incredible.”

The winner will receive editorial feedback on their writing from Carthew as well as a complimentary place at one of W&A’s How To Get Published events held at Bloomsbury Publishing or one of the other locations W&A is hosting an event at in 2019. The winner will also receive a copy of one of the Writing Companion Guide series, and a copy of the latest edition of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook or Children's Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. Five highly-commended entries will also receive a copy of either Yearbook.  

For full details on how to enter, visit the website here. 

The prize comes after research by The Bookseller revealed almost 80% of people in the publishing industry who see themselves as working class feel that their background has adversely affected their career.