How do your feel your school will benefit from holding a mini BWA competition?"our work with the children incorporates a lot of the every child Matters programme, very involved in writing, ran a lot of competitions, book fairs, library services, adults sharing work with children through author visits and have had our own school book published"
Mrs Meena Rai
literacy coordinator
Griffe Field Primary School
 "Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine" - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
High-profile judges
Who will be judging the Brit Writers' Awards Unpublished 2010?
|
Ashley Stokes is a novelist, short story writer, lecturer and editor. He is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and has taught Prose Fiction at UEA, Norwich University College of the Arts and the Open University. He is also a long-standing editor for the Literary Consultancy. His stories have been published in over twenty journals and anthologies, including London Magazine and Staple, and he won a 2003 Bridport Prize for The Suspicion of Bones. His first novel, Touching the Starfish is published in February 2010 by Unthank Books.
Praise for Touching the Starfish: 'Crisp, witty and scalpel-sharp, Touching the Starfish doesn't miss a trick.' Lindsay Clarke
|
|
|
Nick Halliday is an author, illustrator and designer - and he runs the independent children's publisher HallidayBooks. His debut title The Lonely Tree was universally praised, was a 'recommended read' in The Observer, and has become a modern classic. Treetot and Glis the Eco Mouse will be launched in 2010.
Nick tutors and mentors writers and illustrators and is a patron for the children's charity Jigsaw. Nick will be launching two titles at the London Book Fair in April 2010, where he will also be heading and sponsoring the new Illustrators' Café.
Praise for The Lonely Tree: "Utterly completely and splendidly charming. Originally illustrated and delightfully told." Stephen Fry.
Praise for The Scummage: "Striking! An arresting journey to take with a younger reader." The Observer.
|
|
|
Julie Malone, using the pen-name Karen Wright, is the author of The Winterne Series, a trilogy of fantasy adventures for older children and young adults. She is a founder and chairperson of New Writers UK, a non-for-profit organisation which promotes and supports independently published and aspiring authors.
Over the past three years, Julie has organised book festivals and opened channels for independently published authors with major bookstores. New Writers UK has given advice to aspiring writers, holding creative writing workshops in libraries, arts centres, prisons and schools.
Early in 2009 Julie approached Nottinghamshire Library Services to partner New Writers UK in setting up a creative-writing competition for children aged between nine and 13 across the county. Following the success of this inaugural project, the competition is to be widened to include eight to 14 year old entrants and will become an annual event encouraging young people to use their imagination and allowing them to see their name in print for the first time. Julie intends for this to become a cross-county venture.
|
|
|
Justice A Williams was awarded an MBE from the Queen in June 2009 for services to young people in Birmingham. She is the founder and editor of Social Enterprise Tru Life Magazine and managing director of Birmingham Media Group (formerly known as Inner City Creative Media Group), a social enterprise she founded three years ago to offer training to young people aged between 17 and 30 in media and business skills.
The youngest black female in the UK to receive the honour, Ms Williams received her insignia at Buckingham Palace from the Queen on 5 November 2009.
Justice has also won Cosmopolitan Magazine Ultimate Women of the Year Award and was recognised as the 30th most powerful and influential person in Birmingham in the Birmingham Post's 2009 Power 50.
As a result of Justice's work, young people who might otherwise have struggled to find their way into work, have gone on to set up businesses that include an internet cafe, a dance academy and a street theatre company.
More than 100 youngsters have used the service - called 'Creating Successful Entrepreneurs'.
|
|
|
David Price began working in education (lecturing in adult, further and higher education) after a 15-year stint as a songwriter and performer in the music industry. In 1994 he helped establish Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where he was Director of Learning for seven years.
Since then, David has led national projects in music and education in the UK, and advised companies, third-sector organisations and government departments internationally. He specialises in talking about creativity, human capability and the impact of digital technologies and education - work which has taken him all over the UK and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, USA and China.
In 2001 David was made a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and was awarded with an OBE in June 2008 for services to education.
|
|
Harry Bingham is the author of five novels, all from HarperCollins. The first, The Money Makers, shot straight onto the Sunday Times bestseller list.
The second, Sweet Talking Money, was shortlisted for the WHS Thumping Good Read Award 2002.
The Sons of Adam came out in 2004, and was picked by The Bookseller as one of the most exciting books of the year. Glory Boys came out in 2005, with the The Bookseller commenting: "If you haven't yet discovered the sales potential or sheer story-telling power of this author then you are missing out. He is the next [Jeffrey] Archer or [Sidney] Sheldon."
This Little Britain, published by 4th Estate in 2007, is Harry's first non-fiction publication. It's an entertaining, argumentative romp through British history, full of surprising facts. |
|
Jonathan Telfer is from Writing Magazine and absolutely thrilled that the publication can get behind the Brit Writers' Awards.
As a judge of the 2008 Muslim Writers' Awards, Jonathan has expressed how it is great to see this award opening up to everyone... and reaching out to all those people who don't even know they want to be writers yet!
Whether you're an eventual winner or just enjoy the challenge of taking part, Jonathan feels these awards are a great opportunity to get yourself started as a writer, which is exactly what Writing Magazine and Writers' News are all about. He can't wait to see the entries... |
|
| Jane Struthers's first taste of astrology was in her teens, courtesy of Jackie magazine. But this didn't offer a lot of scope so she began teaching herself proper astrology. She also discovered tarot and palmistry, and began writing novels.
Since then, Jane's spent her entire career in publishing, first as an editor and now as a professional writer.
Jane is the author of more than 20 non-fiction books on a variety of topics, including interior design and popular British history. She specialises in writing books on mind, body and spirit, including The Palmistry Bible, Understanding Astrology, Destiny Tarot and the best-selling The Psychic's Bible. For two years she wrote the astrology column in The Sun, and is now the astrologer for Bella magazine.
|
|
Martin Ouvry worked as a musician in Europe and America before reading English at the University of East Anglia under the tutelage of Whitbread Prize-winner Lorna Sage. He went on to take the university's MA course in Creative Writing, and was awarded the UEA Alumni Prize for Fiction.
Martin is an editor at The Writers' Workshop, and reviews books for the Financial Times; he has also taught widely, including as an Associate Tutor at UEA. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, among them Tell Tales and New Writing.
In 2008, Martin was elected a Hawthornden Fellow; he is also grateful for the Arts Council Writer's Award that helped him develop a literary novel. He is represented by Andrew Kidd at Aitken Alexander Associates. |
|
Sam Jordison has been earning a living as a writer since the year 2000. He was the brains behind the bestselling Crap Towns series and has published a book about cults, cranks and religious eccentrics called The Joy Of Sects. He is currently working on another humour book about disastrous dates - and his first short story was recently published in a compilation.
Sam has written features and articles for most national papers in the UK and he also regularly reviews films. He currently lives in Oxford with his partner.
|
|
Yasmin Standen graduated from university having read law. After practising law briefly, she spent some time at a London-based literary agency. In 2004, she set up her own agency, discovering a number of fantastic new writers. Between them they have had 20 books published, comprising of children's fiction and young adult fiction.
Yasmin is very keen to be part of the publishing process which enables new literary voices to be heard. She is interested in all genres of writing, whether for adults or children, literary or fantasy fiction, and is keen to discover new talent (which she views as one of the most exciting aspects of her job). |
|
Sarah Harrison is the author of more than 20 titles in many different genres, including the internationally bestselling The Flowers of the Field and the popular self-help guide, How to Write a Blockbuster. She conducts courses and workshops in creative writing, and heads up two writers' groups in her area, the Morden and District Writers Circle and the local Young Writers Group which she started just under a year ago.
Sarah has been Chairman of Judges for the Betty Trask Award (for a first novel). She is also a regular on the judging panel for the Schools Public Speaking Competition, organised by the English Speaking Union, and is an occasional reviewer on Radio Five's Simon Mayo Programme. |
|
Val Tyler is the author of two books for children, The Time Wreccas and The Time Apprentice. The former these was shortlisted for the inaugural Ottakar's children's book prize, and was also the Ottakar's Book of the Month. The second was praised by The Independent for its, "clever pseudo-science, attractive characterisation and well-sustained suspense."
Val was a teacher for 20 years, teaching every age group from five to 18. She now writes full time and lives deep in the Welsh countryside. |
|
Susan Davies was seven when she wrote her first novel, which was lovingly illustrated and bound with scarlet knitting wool. Since then, she's upped her game. Her debut novel, The Henry Game (Random House 2002 - an Ottakars Book of the Month) tells the story of three girls who accidentally summon up the spirit of Henry VIII. The sequel, Delilah and the Dark Stuff, came out in 2003. Mad, Bad and Dangerous came out in 2005.
Susan's short fiction has been shortlisted for the Asham Award and won many other prizes. She has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Susan is an Arvon tutor and literary mentor. |
|
Sheena Joughin has won several prizes for her short stories, but now concentrates on longer fiction and has published two novels. Fay Weldon said of Things to do Indoors (2003), "She writes like an angel and thinks like the devil", and Julie Burchill wrote "I love this book".
Sheena's successful debut was followed by Swimming Underwater in 2005, which was widely reviewed and admired. ("Both philosophical and a pleasure", said The Guardian).
Sheena has also written The Hamlyn History of Twentieth Century Fiction, and reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, The Independent and The New Statesman. She has taught poetry and fiction workshops in London for the past five years, and is a lecturer on the Creative Writing course at Bath Spa University. |
|
Arshia Riaz has been working at BBC WM for over three years. In this time she has taken on a variety of roles, which include Broadcast Assistant, Producer, Broadcast Journalist, traffic and travel presenter, Celebrity Booker, Online Journalist and Researcher. She has booked in everybody from Ricky Gervais to boxer Amir Khan and she loves moving around in different departments as each bit of the station has its own challenges.
Arshia is very excited and honoured to be a judge for the Brit Writers' Awards Unpublished 2010 as she loves helping to nurture talent - and these awards are a "great way to tap into that creativity and help it to flourish". |
|
Robin Lloyd-Jones is the author of three novels, two collections of short stories and half a dozen non-fiction books. His novel Lord of the Dance won the BBC Bookshelf First Novel Award and was entered for the Booker Prize. "Amazing imaginative brilliance," said The Times of this novel.
Robin also writes radio drama; his play, Ice in Wonderland, winning the Radio Times' Best Drama Script for 1992.
Robin has conducted many writers' workshops and, for four years, he was a tutor in Creative Writing at Glasgow University.
Robin is a former president of the Scottish Association of Writers for whom he has adjudicated many short story and novel competitions. |
|
| Tania Hershman is a former science journalist. Commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, her short story collection The White Road and Other Stories is published by Salt Modern Fiction.
Tania is the incoming fiction editor of Southworld magazine and one of the judges of the 2009 Bristol Short Story Prize and the 2010 Sean O'Faolain short story competition.
She is also the founder and editor of The Short Review, (www.theshortreview.com), a site dedicated to reviewing short story collections.
|
|
Rachel Bellerby works for Young Writer magazine and, as a freelance journalist, has written more than 300 articles, specialising in history and genealogy.
She is the author of two non-fiction books: Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors and Chasing the Sixpence.
|
|
Victoria Lee has had a long career in children's publishing. At Reed Children's Books, she was Publishing Manager for Picture Books & Fiction, then Picture Books Editor. She has herself written a fair few picture books for titles conceived and produced in-house - so she knows the challenge involved in writing such things.
Victoria lives in a tiny sixteenth-century terraced house in Warwickshire and, in her spare time, enjoys tending her cottage garden.
|
|
Craig has published two literary novels (as C M Taylor): Light and Cloven, a dark take on 2001's foot and mouth disease outbreak.
Under the nom de plume Ed Lark, Craig has published Grief, a dystopian fantasy which was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Book of the Year, 2005. The BFSA wrote, "Grief is a magnificent novel... Ed Lark is certainly a writer to look out for."
C M Taylor's journalism has been published in the national press, including The Guardian and The Telegraph. He took a Cambridge first in Social Anthropology and lived in India, Belgium and Spain, before recently settling in Oxford with his wife and canoe. He is currently working on a non-fiction book about allotments, and a novel. |
|
Debi Alper is the author of Nirvana Bites and Trading Tatiana, both published by Orion. These are the first two books in a series of thrillers set in the Nirvana housing co-op in Peckham. Quirky and offbeat, Debi's books feature characters from the sub-cultures, giving human faces to the stereotypes. "With compassion, humour and a strong sense of social justice Alper takes us for a walk away from the mainstream and into the seedier, needier, weirder side of London." Cath Staincliffe.
Debi is also an experienced editor, workshop leader and creative writing mentor and loves being involved in the gestation of other authors' creations. She is a founder member of the East Dulwich Writers' Group, now in its tenth year and with over a hundred local writers on the email list. The group is about to publish its first anthology, Hoovering the Roof, which includes an extract from Debi's fourth book, Me, John and a Bomb. |
|
Anastasia Parkes has an MA in English Literature from Oxford and presently works as a part-time legal clerk for a firm of criminal defence lawyers, a portrait photographer, a 'host mother' for foreign students, and an occasional housewife. She is also a freelance features writer and has published opinion, human interest and health pieces in national newspapers such as The Times, The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, The Independent, The Tablet, The Lady, and You And Your Baby magazine.
Heavily disguised under the pseudonym Primula Bond she has written three erotic novels for Virgin Books and numerous short stories for their anthologies. She has just contracted to publish her first single author collection of erotic short stories for Xcite Books.
When she's not working on her first collection of literary short stories Anastasia gives editorial and marketing advice to aspiring erotic and romantic writers for the Writers' Workshop. |
|
Richard Gallagher began his career as an actor at the Royal Exchange Theatre after training at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. Some years later, during a prolonged European tour, he wrote his first play, The Red Dragon, which was performed at the Contact Theatre (Manchester). Other plays followed combined with life as professional actor and theatre director but it was the success of French Paste first performed at the Green Room in Manchester that made him decide to major as a writer. The play was nominated for a Manchester Evening News Award as best new play and has recently been revived at the Shaw Theatre, London.
Richard also wrote for several magazines as a theatre critic and columnist and is the author of ‘true crime' books including I'll Be Watching You (an investigation into stalking) and When Kids Kill (as Jonathan Paul). He has many short stories to his name, one of which - 'Mother's Day' - was filmed for Yorkshire TV, starring the late Kathy Staff (also known as Nora Batty of Last of the Summer Wine.)
He is heavily involved with The Questors Theatre in Ealing as an actor, writer and director - most recently appearing as Lady Bracknell. |
|
Fiona Shaw is the author of one memoir and three novels. Her memoir Out of Me (Penguin) was written in the wake of a severe postnatal breakdown, was shortlisted for the MIND prize, and is now required reading for a range of health professionals from doctors to social workers.
Fiona's first novels, The Sweetest Thing (Virago) and The Picture She Took (Virago) are both literary historical novels. Her third novel, Tell it to the Bees (Tindal Street) was published in May 2009. Although it is set in the 1950s, it wears the time very lightly. It is a three-handed story told through the eyes of two women and a boy; partly a love story and partly an exploration of a child's experience of the break-up of his parents' marriage.
Fiona has just finished a two-year stint as Royal Literary Fellow at the University of York, and has worked for Clare Alexander at Gillon Aitken Assocs. She lives in York with her partner and two daughters. |
|
Alma Alexander's writing career may have really taken off with the acceptance (and subsequent appearance in their 30th anniversary hardcover anthology) of a short story by the venerable London Magazine, back in the fading years of the last century. Since then, she's published ten books, including the international bestseller The Secrets of Jin Shei (now out in 13 languages), and more short stories have appeared in magazines and other anthologies over the years.
Alma currently lives in the cedar woods of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, with her husband, two cats, and assorted visiting wildlife. |
|
| Jeremy Sheldon is the author of two works of fiction published by Jonathan Cape, The Comfort Zone and The Smiling Affair, as well as a number of anthologised short stories. He is a tutor on the MA in Creative Writing Programme at Birkbeck, University of London, and also at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. He has led fiction workshops for the Arvon Foundation and Spread the Word in the UK and has taught overseas for organisations such as the Geneva Writers' Conference, the Skyros Writers' Lab, the British Council and the Ministry of Education in Singapore. In addition to this, Jeremy continues to work as a script editor and development consultant for a number of film production companies. He graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 1996. |
|
|
Dexter Petley has published four critically acclaimed novels: Little Nineveh, Joyride, White Lies, and One True Void, with Polygon, Fourth Estate and Two Ravens Press. White Lies was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC and shortlisted for the Dazed&Confused award for Most Promising Writer 2003. He also translated The Fishing Box by Maurice Genevoix from the original French (shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize) and was for several years a regular contributor to Waterlog magazine for which he was voted New Angling Writer of the Year 2005.
Dexter is editor of Powerlines, an anthology of new writing due in November 2009 and contributed to the best selling Caught By the River anthology published in June 2009. He is an experienced fiction editor and copy editor and has ghostwritten several autobiographies and novels.
|
|
Richard Blandford is the author of Hound Dog (Jonathan Cape), described as "Phoenix Nights meets American Psycho. In Cambridge" by Kevin Sampson, author of Powder.
Hound Dog is a novel of redemption and rock'n'roll, masturbation and morality. The Observer described it as, "Slick, efficient and faintly nasty, this novel croons indie Brit-flick." The TV rights to Hound Dog have been sold to GRD Productions.
Richard's second novel is Flying Saucer Rock and Roll (Cape, 2008), called "one of the few great novels about being in a rock band" by Scott Pack, former head buyer of Waterstones. |
|
Clio Gray is the author of four novels, all published by Headline, all historical thrillers of a literary bent: Guardians of the Key, The Roaring of the Labyrinth, Envoy of the Black Pin, and The Brotherhood of Five. Guardians of the Key was the recipient of the 2004 Harry Bowling Prize.
Clio also has a collection of short stories out; Types of Everlasting Rest published by Two Ravens Press, each individual story of which has won an award of one kind or another, the most prestigious being the Scotsman/Orange 2006 for 'I should have listened harder...'. |
|
Diana Stainforth wrote her first novel - Bird of Paradise - while working for Rebecca West, the Grande Dame of British literature, whose archive she catalogued. With that first novel accepted and a second - The Indiscretion - commissioned, Diana became a full-time writer. Five more novels followed, all published in both hardback and paperback and mainly by Random House in the UK. She has also been published in the US and translated into German, Russian, Czech, Bulgarian and Romanian. Her seventh novel has recently been filmed for German television.
Diana has considerable judging experience having judged the Betty Trask Award for the Society of Authors, the London Writers' Competition, and she is a reader for the Romantic Novelists' Association Novel of the Year Award. |
|
Rebecca Horsfall is the author of Dancing on Thorns, a character-driven page turner published by Random House, centering on the world of ballet. Elle Magazine has described her as the new Jilly Cooper.
Rebecca worked, on and off, for more than a decade for a West End producer as a script supervisor and assistant producer before writing what The Bookseller described as "736 unputdownable pages of pure delight". She has done office work, theatre directing, teaching, theatrical management - as well as working in a microbiology lab. She has been happily married for 15 years. |
|
| Emma Shipley is assistant editor at Writing Magazine and Writers' News. She has worked as a freelance journalist for over 20 women's magazines, contributed exclusive news stories to several national newspapers, and written features for Yorkshire Today and Yorkshire Ridings. She has also worked for the Radio Times and written daily news stories for websites. |
|
Matthew Hill is the editor of Young Writer, the magazine dedicated to young people with a passion for writing stories and poetry. His editor role at Warners Group Publications also includes the tiles Scottish Memories and Stamp & Coin Mart.
Before working for Warners Group Publications, Matt worked as a film critic for the Press Association and has also had features published in a variety of magazines as a freelance writer. He began his journalism career working on a popular website for teenagers, which involved supporting young people with contributions and editing. |
|
Elizabeth North has published eight novels both in the UK and the USA. Of her novel Dames, it was said: "She has all the virtues of the English social novelist". And of Ancient Enemies: "Fast and funny: Move over Holden Caulfield."
Elizabeth's teaching has included courses for Oxford University Continuing Education, residential courses at the Arvon Foundation and story workshops both in the UK and the USA. She has been Fellow in Creative Writing at Bretton Hall and was a founding tutor for the Open College of the Arts. She lives in Oxford where she mentors other novelists and works as a literary consultant. |
|
| Gary Gibson has been writing since before the age of 14, and had his first science fiction novel published by Tor in 2004. His most recent published work is Nova War.
|
|
|
Countdown to
submissions deadline:
Make your wish. Write Now!
From the team
Winter updates
Good news if you're a self-published author!
We've changed our terms & conditions so you are now eligible to enter the Brit Writers' Awards Unpublished 2010...
Read the BWA team blog...
Latest
|
