In conjunction with Arvon, we are offering a prose writer the chance to undertake an Arvon course. This may be either a tutored or untutored retreat, depending on what you think will be of most benefit to you. Both children’s writers and writers for adults may apply for this award. We are grateful to Arvon for their continued support of this award.

The Arvon Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026.

To enter writers should submit a sample of 3000–6000 words and a synopsis of up to 600 words. Please answer the application questions.

To apply for this award you should be:

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• Be working towards a full-length work of fiction or narrative non-fiction.

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

This award is for a single unpublished short story of up to 1500 words. This opportunity is open to new, emerging and established writers.

The winner of the Finchale Award for Short Fiction will receive £1000 and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network.

The award is named after Finchale Priory, a place of retreat for the monks of Durham during the Middle Ages. We’re grateful to the writer Benjamin Myers, whose generous support has made this unique opportunity possible.

The Finchale Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026.

To apply for this award you should be: 

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months. 
• Over the age of 18. 

This award will be judged by Jake Arnott and Maxine Peake.

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

This award is open to people who may have faced barriers to seeing their work progress for financial reasons or reasons related to disability, ethnicity and/or sexuality. For more information, see TLC’s website.

In conjunction with The Literary Consultancy we are offering up to three poets, prose writers and children’s writers the chance to receive an in-depth editorial report on their work in progress. You must be working towards a full-length work (e.g. a novel, work of creative non-fiction, poetry collection or short story collection). Although your manuscript does not have to be complete, you must be in a position to submit the manuscript for assessment before the end of February 2027. Unpublished and previously published writers may enter work in this category.

In addition to the Free Read, writers will receive £500 and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network.

The TLC Free Read Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026.

To enter writers should submit an extract of between 3000 and 6000 words, up to 30 poems, or two or more short stories (of no more than 6000 words in total), and a synopsis of up to 600 words. Please answer the application questions.

To apply for this award you should be:

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• Be working towards a full-length work of fiction, narrative non-fiction or poetry.

Former winners: please note that if you win another Northern Writers' Award in 2026 you are not eligible to enter this award.

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

This award, worth £2000, is open to writers of poetry, fiction, narrative non-fiction or script who are current students at Northumbria University (undergraduates in second year or above or postgraduates), or Northumbria University alumni who have graduated in the last ten years and are currently based in the North of England. Writers can be at any stage in their career.

The award is open to students and graduates from any discipline who are: undergraduate students in second year or above; current postgraduate students; or alumni who have graduated from an undergraduate or postgraduate programme at Northumbria University within the last ten years.

This award is made possible through New Writing North's partnership with our lead partner Northumbria University.

The Northumbria University Student and Alumni Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026.

We will accept the following for this award:

• A single standalone piece of work of 3000-6000 words. This can be a short story, poem, short script or a narrative non-fiction essay (essay topics can be related to memoir, the arts, health or well-being).

Or

• An extract from a longer work of up to 3000–6000 words and a synopsis of up to 600 words. Please answer the application questions.

To apply for this award you should be:

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• An undergraduate student in second year or above; a current postgraduate student; or an alumni who has graduated from an undergraduate or postgraduate programme at Northumbria University within the last ten years.

This award will be judged by Stu Hennigan.

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

The Sid Chaplin Award is for writers of fiction and narrative non-fiction who identify as originating from a working-class background.

The winning writer will receive a bursary of £2000; a manuscript appraisal from The Literary Consultancy; and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network.

The award is made in memory of the writer Sid Chaplin (1916–1986) whose novels such as The Day of the Sardine  and The Watchers and the Watched are celebrated for their stylistic mastery and their vivid depictions of working-class life in North East England.

We're grateful to the Chaplin family and Newcastle University for their support of this award.

The Sid Chaplin Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026. 

To enter writers should submit a sample of 3000–6000 words and a synopsis and answer the application questions.

To apply for this award you should be:

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• Identify as originating from a working-class background.
• Working on a memoir, novel, young adult novel, short story collection or work of literary essays.
• An unpublished, emerging or established writer.

This award will be judged by Stu Hennigan.

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

Tees Valley – An Engine Room of Creative Production

The Tees Valley Award is open to writers of fiction and narrative non-fiction currently living in the Tees Valley. The Tees Valley is the area covering Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees. For the purpose of this award the area boundary will be defined as shown here.

The winning writer will receive a bursary of £2500 and access to New Writing North’s programme of support for writers. The award has been established to offer developmental support to a writer living in the Tees Valley with a work in progress showing potential for publication. Applicants can be at any stage of their writing career, and can be working on fiction or narrative non-fiction of any genre.

This award is made possible through generous support from the Tees Valley Combined Authority and Arts Council England as part of The Engine Room project. 

The Tees Valley Award will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026. 

To enter, writers should submit a sample of 3000–6000 words from their work in progress and a synopsis of up to 600 words. Please also answer the application questions. 

To apply for this award you should be: 

• Living in the Tees Valley at the time of entering and planning to remain there for at least another 12 months. See here for more information: https://teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/about/our-region/faqs/ 
• Over the age of 18. 
• Working on a full-length novel (including YA), a work of narrative non-fiction or a short story collection. 

This award will be judged by Irenosen Okojie and Hellie Ogden. 

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 

The Tempest Prize will reward one unpublished LGBTQ+ writer based in the North of England.

This award is open to poetry, fiction and narrative non-fiction. You will need to provide an extract of a work in-progress. For fiction or narrative non-fiction this should be 3000-6000 words, along with a synopsis. For poetry, please enter up to 15 pages of poetry and a short commentary on your collection in progress. Please also answer the application questions.

The winner of the Tempest Prize will receive £1000, access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network and mentoring from Andrew McMillan.

We’re grateful to the writer Andrew McMillan, whose generous support has made this unique opportunity possible.

The Tempest Prize will close at 12pm (midday) on 10 March 2026. 

To apply for this award you should be:

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.

This award will be judged by poet Alycia Pirmohamed.

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

The Young Northern Writers' Awards 2026 are open to young writers aged 11–18 in the North of England. Young writers can submit creative work in any form including prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting and rap.

There are two age categories, 11–14 and 15–18. Entrants must be 18 years or under when the awards close. The winner in each category will receive prize money of £150. Up to two writers may also be highly commended across the age categories. This award is made possible through New Writing North's partnership with our lead partner Northumbria University.

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)

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.

The Matthew Hale Award is open to young writers who show promise but have had limited opportunities to pursue their talent. This could be due to a number of factors, including physical or mental ill-health, family circumstances, financial circumstances, lack of access to cultural opportunities or other reasons.

This award is for a young person aged 11–18 based in the North of England. Entrants must be 18 years or under when the awards close. Young writers can submit creative work in any form including prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting and rap.

There is one winner. The winner will receive a 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 one-on-one mentoring with a professional writer, enrolment on a course, books, theatre tickets or a pass to a literature festival.

We’re grateful to the Hale family for generously supporting this award.

This award is judged by the family of Matthew Hale and New Writing North.

Applications 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)

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

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

The Children’s Books North Network Prize is open to illustrators of any nationality or descent who are permanently resident in the North of England.  

You will need to send us PDFs of illustrations for three double-page spreads (which can include spot art and vignettes) of your choice for a supplied picture book text (Fabulous Frank by Corrinne Averiss). You may use any medium, but do not include novelty elements or 3D artwork.  

We are looking for original and outstanding picture book illustrations that demonstrate creativity in visual storytelling for children, strong characterisation, continuity and progression, and show a range of emotion and pace appropriate to the text  

There will be one winner of this award and one highly commended entry.  

The winning illustrator will be offered a financial prize of £2000, and a programme of mentoring opportunities with professionals at the Children’s Book North Network and introductions to professionals. The highly commended entrant will receive £1,000, a programme of mentoring, and feedback on their entry. The winners will also receive access to New Writing North’s programmes of support. 

Entry details 

To apply for this award you should be: 

• Living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months. 
• Over the age of 18. 

Please submit your three spreads by the award deadline. Please do not put your name on your spreads. Illustrators will be contacted about their submission by  16 June 2026. 

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. 

The Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Fiction, Narrative Non-Fiction and YA will be awarded to two early career published writers currently living in the North of England. Each winning writer will receive a bursary of £5,000 to support them to develop their work-in-progress. The winners will also receive access to New Writing North’s programme of support. 

These awards are open to writers of fiction or narrative non-fiction who have had work professionally published, aiming to support writers at a pivotal point in their careers as they develop new work towards publication. There will be two winners for the fiction and narrative non-fiction awards.

These awards are generously funded by the Charlotte Aitken Trust and managed by New Writing North. 

Entry details 

To enter, writers must submit: 

1. A sample of a work-in-progress: 

• For fiction/narrative non-fiction: submit 3000-6000 words and a synopsis of up to 600 words. 
• For short story collections: submit 1-3 short stories totaling 3000-6000 words, and an overview of the collection of up to 600 words. 

2. Responses to questions about your writing career (250 words), about the progress you have made on your project so far (250 words), and about how you intend to use the bursary (350 words).

To be eligible to apply for this award, you should be: 

• Living and working in the North of England and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• A writer of fiction, and/or creative non-fiction who has published at least one full-length work (such as a novel or memoir); or a poet who has published at least one pamphlet and has published at least four individual poems in magazines, online or in anthologies; or a fiction writer who has published a novella or at least four short stories in magazines and anthologies; or an author of essays or similar non-fiction pieces that have been widely published online and in print. 
• An emerging early career writer.  
• Working towards a new full-length work and have an outline of this writing project. This work does not have to be in the same genre or form as your previous publications. 

Please do not put your name on your writing sample or as part of the file name for your extract.

Please note you can only enter EITHER the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Fiction/Narrative Non-FIction and YA OR the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Poetry. 

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

The Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Poetry will be awarded to two early career published writers currently living in the North of England. Each winning writer will receive a bursary of £5,000 to support them to develop their work-in-progress. The winners will also receive access to New Writing North’s programme of support. 

These awards are open to writers of poetry who have had work professionally published, aiming to support writers at a pivotal point in their careers as they develop new work towards publication. There will be two winners for the poetry awards.

These awards are generously funded by the Charlotte Aitken Trust and managed by New Writing North. 

Entry details 

To enter, writers must submit: 

1. A sample of a work-in-progress: 

• For poetry: submit up to 30 poems from your work-in-progress (or, if longer poems, an equivalent amount) and an overview of the collection of up to 600 words.

2. Responses to questions about your writing career (250 words), about the progress you have made on your project so far (250 words), and about how you intend to use the bursary (350 words).

To be eligible to apply for this award, you should be: 

• Living and working in the North of England and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months.
• Over the age of 18.
• A writer of fiction, and/or creative non-fiction who has published at least one full-length work (such as a novel or memoir); or a poet who has published at least one pamphlet and has published at least four individual poems in magazines, online or in anthologies; or a fiction writer who has published a novella or at least four short stories in magazines and anthologies; or an author of essays or similar non-fiction pieces that have been widely published online and in print. 
• An emerging early career writer.  
• Working towards a new full-length work and have an outline of this writing project. This work does not have to be in the same genre or form as your previous publications. 

Please do not put your name on your writing sample or as part of the file name for your extract.

Please note you can only enter EITHER the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Poetry OR the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards for Fiction/Narrative Non-FIction and YA. 

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