The Eva Ibbotson Award 2026
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The Eva Ibbotson Award is open to young writers aged 11–15 in the North of England who are writing in English as an additional language. Young writers can submit creative work in any form including prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting and rap. Writers must be aged 15 years or younger when the awards close.
There will be one winner. The winner will receive a bespoke package of support created by New Writing North to the value of £500. The package will be tailored to the specific interests and needs of the winner, but could include anything from mentoring with a professional writer, enrolment on a course, books, theatre tickets or a pass to a literature festival.
The Ibbotson prize will include a collection of Pan Macmillan books to the value of £200 to the winning pupil's school library and a set of Eva's books to the winner (and any runners up).
The award is made in memory of the writer Eva Ibbotson. Eva Ibbotson’s life was as adventurous as those of the characters she created in her mystical middle-grade stories and sweeping young adult romances.
Born in Vienna in 1925, at nine years old Eva moved to London to join her mother, a successful novelist and playwright, who had fled Vienna in 1933 after her work was banned by the Nazi authorities. Other members of Eva’s family also escaped Vienna and settled in England, and their shared experiences later influenced Eva’s writing, with the themes of home, refugees and immigration running through her books.
Eva wrote more than twenty books for children and won the Smarties Prize for her novel Journey to the River Sea in 2001. She died at her home in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2010, aged eighty-five.
We’re grateful to the Ibbotson family for generously supporting this award.
This award is judged by the family of Eva Ibbotson, New Writing North and a guest judge (to be announced).
Applications for the awards are accepted in two ways:
- by application directly from the young person
- through nomination from an adult working with the young person (for example, parents, teachers or other adults)
Click the button below to apply for or nominate for the awards.
For more information, please read the Eligibility and Conditions of Entry carefully.
For any enquiries, please read the FAQs.
If you still need an answer, contact us at awards@newwritingnorth.com