The London Writers Awards is Spread the Word’s new annual development programme for talented London writers. Currently open for application, the Awards’ aim is to increase the number of writers from currently under-represented communities being taken up by agents and publishers.
The Awards will provide 30 London writers of literary and commercial fiction, narrative non-fiction, YA/children’s and poetry with a nine-month development programme of critical feedback groups, masterclasses, 1-2-1 coaching and WriterLabs, including a showcase event.
Adam Kay will be leading the Narrative Non-Fiction masterclass. The Young Adult/Children’s masterclass will be delivered by Catherine Johnson. Claire McGowan will run the Commercial Fiction masterclass and Literary Fiction will be led by Romesh Gunesekera. The Poetry masterclass tutor is Kayo Chingonyi.
Author judges for the 2018 Awards are Diana Evans, Vaseem Khan, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Daljit Nagra and Patrice Lawrence. Industry judges are Aimée Felone (Founder, Knights Of), Lucy Luck (Literary Agent, C+W), Ella Kahn (Co-founder, Diamond Kahn & Woods Agency), Rukhsana Yasmin (Deputy Editor, Wasafiri), and Rachael Allen (Poetry Editor, Granta).
Entry to the Awards is free. There are also access bursaries available.
Applications are open from midday Monday 4 June until 5pm on Friday 22 June 2018.
More information is available here