Young Writer of the Year Award 2018 opens for entries

Submissions are now open for The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2018 in association with the University of Warwick.

The prize identifies and champions the best writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry aged 18 to 35.

Irish writer Sally Rooney was named last year’s Young Writer of the Year for Conversation with Friends (Faber & Faber): her novel is currently shortlisted for the £20,000 Rathbones Folio Prize, the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, and the British Book Awards (Book of the Year - Fiction: Debut).

Rooney followed Max Porter with Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Faber & Faber), whose second novel, Lanny, has just been announced by Faber & Faber, and the poet Sarah Howe, who was awarded in 2015 for her first collection, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus), which went on to win the T.S. Eliot Prize.  

Sponsored by literary agency Peters Fraser + Dunlop, the Young Writer of the Year Award is running in association with the University of Warwick – home to the acclaimed Warwick Writing Programme – who is offering a bespoke 10-week residency for the award’s winner, and a year-long programme of digital support for the prize. The British Council is the international partner of the prize.

Submissions close on Friday 8th June 2018. To be eligible, books must have been first published in the UK and/or the Republic of Ireland, in the English language, between 3rd June 2017 and 8th June 2018. The author must be aged 18 to 35. The award is open to both traditionally and self-published work.

The 2018 judging panel will be revealed in the coming weeks, with the shortlist of four books announced on 4th November, followed by the winner on 6th December. The overall winner will receive £5,000, while each of the three runners-up will be awarded £500.