The Hachette Children’s Novel Award is open to debut writers of middle-grade children’s fiction and early teen fiction.

We accept all kinds of children’s and early teen fiction, including but not limited to historical fiction, crime, science fiction, romance and fantasy. Please do not submit collections of short stories or individual short stories.

In terms of target age group, we are looking for fiction for children aged 7–11 (at the younger end of this bracket the word count can be 15–30K; at the older end, approx. 40K), or teen fiction for readers aged 11-13 (50–65K words), this should still exclude high-end or explicit content including swearing, sex and drugs.

There will be two winners of this award. The winning writers will be offered a financial prize of £3000 each; and a programme of mentoring opportunities with professionals at Hachette Children’s Group, including a minimum of 4 professional development sessions in a nine-month period, across editorial and design, sales, marketing and rights.

Any reasonable travel expenses will be covered by the publisher. Additionally, the winners will receive access to New Writing North’s programmes of support.

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.
• A debut author of middle-grade and early teen fiction.

Please submit your initial 3000-6000 words and synopsis by the award deadline. Authors longlisted for the award will be contacted by 19 February 2026 and asked to deliver a complete draft of their manuscript by 28 February 2026.

Judges will be announced in November 2025.

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 Great Northern Read Award has been devised by Johnson & Alcock to offer a fresh and exciting opportunity for emerging writers of gripping, page-turning fiction across all genres, who are looking to take the next step towards publication. The award is open to unagented and unpublished writers who are currently living in the North of England. We are interested in submissions across the full spectrum of genres, including but not limited to: crime, mystery, historical, romance, fantasy, sci-fi and book club fiction, with an emphasis on immersive storytelling and compelling writing. 

There will be one winning writer, who will receive £2500 prize money, a structured programme of mentoring sessions with representatives from Johnson & Alcock literary agency, who will provide the successful candidate with tailored guidance on manuscript development and career progression, and access to New Writing North’s programme of support for writers.

To enter, writers must submit the first 3000-6000 words of their novels in progress and a synopsis, and answer a set of application questions. All applications must be entered via Submittable. 

Authors longlisted for the award will be notified by 16 March and asked to deliver a complete draft of their manuscript via Submittable by 31 March.  Therefore, although you don’t need to have a complete full draft in order to submit, you should be in a position where you will be able to submit a full draft by 31 March.

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.  
• A debut writer who is yet to have published or self-published a full-length work. 
• A writer of fiction across all genres.
• Currently unagented. 

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

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

Winners will receive awards of up to £3000 to support them to develop work in progress and to complete promising manuscripts. They will also be given access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network. This award is made possible through New Writing North's partnership with our lead partner Northumbria University.

These awards are open to applications from both emerging and established writers, but we recommend that as-yet-unpublished writers consider entering the Northern Debut Awards: Fiction programme or the Hachette Children’s Novel Award. Early career published writers may also consider entering for the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards, part of the 2026 Northern Writers' Awards. Please read the Eligibility criteria carefully to see if you can enter this award.

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.
• Working on a full-length novel, work of narrative non-fiction or a short-story collection.

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

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 programme will offer a package of support to two writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction who are yet to publish a full-length novel or collection of short stories. This award is made possible through New Writing North's partnership with our lead partner Northumbria University.

The programme has been devised by New Writing North to offer structured developmental support to writers with a work in progress showing potential for publication. Each winner will receive £2000, mentoring and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network.

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.
• A debut author of fiction or narrative non-fiction or an debut author of young adult fiction; you may have published short work in magazines and anthologies.

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

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

Winning poets will receive awards of up to £3000 to support them to develop work in progress and to complete promising collections. These awards are open to applications from both emerging and established poets but poets yet to publish a full-length collection should consider entering the Northern Debut Awards: Poetry. Early career published poets may also consider entering the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards, part of the 2026 Northern Writers' Awards. 

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

Winners will also receive access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network.

To enter poets should submit up to 30 poems or an equivalent amount of longer sequences. Each submission of work must be accompanied by a commentary of up to 600 words that describes the proposed project. 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.
• Working on a full-length collection of poetry. 

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

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 programme will offer a package of support to two poets who are yet to publish a full-length collection.

The programme has been devised by New Writing North to offer developmental support to poets with a work in progress showing potential for publication.

Three awards will be made in this category. Each winner will receive £2000, mentoring and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network. This award is made possible through New Writing North's partnership with our lead partner Northumbria University.

To enter poets should submit up to 30 poems or an equivalent amount of longer sequences. Each submission of work must be accompanied by a commentary that describes the proposed project.

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.
• A debut poet: you may have published a pamphlet and had individual poems in magazines and anthologies but you should not yet have published a full collection.

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

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