New Writing Ventures 2007

Latest update 'New Writing Ventures has not run since 2007'

New Writing Ventures was an annual series of major national prizes and awards for emerging writers in poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The awards were launched by the New Writing Partnership, a unique enterprise that aimed to highlight, develop and support creative writing. It was last awarded in 2007.

Winners

The winners of the 2007 awards were announced on 12 September 2007.

Fiction

Azmar Dar for 'The Secret Arts'
A colourful first chapter of a novel set in Muree, a hill town in Pakistan, where a wedding is about to take place. Her story introduces a wealth of charming characters, from the middle aged, newly married colonel and his domineering mother, to the old man who practises black magic on the village dwellers.

Creative non-fiction

Suzanne Joinson for 'Laila Ahmed'
A collection of missing letters found. A life packed in a box. A world uncovered. Laila Ahmed is a brilliantly constructed tale of family relationships, culture, memory and history inspired by a cache of letters found in Deptford Market.

Poetry

Jemma Borg
Winning in the category that saw the only male entry shortlisted, Jemma’s collection of nine poems stood out from a very high quality shortlist. Her scientific background is clearly apparent in these varied and emotive poems, all of which display a keen interest in human responses and an individual’s reactions to a complex world.

About the New Writing Ventures 2007

About the prize

New Writing Ventures was an annual series of major national prizes and awards for emerging writers in poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

The awards were launched by the New Writing Partnership, a unique enterprise that aimed to highlight, develop and support creative writing.

Supported by Arts Council England East, UEA, Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council, the Partnership helped to establish the east of England as a national and international centre of excellence.

The winner in each of the three categories – fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry – received £3,000, and a place on the year-long Ventures Development Programme, which included individual mentoring, professional advice by The Literary Consultancy and personal introductions to key figures in the publishing world.

Two runners-up in each category each received a £1,000 cash prize.

After three successful years the programme ended in 2008. over those three years we worked with 27 great new writers and saw some amazing collections of poetry and novels published. We saw writers find agents, change genres, discover whole new areas of interest and most importantly, benefit from in-depth mentoring relationships with established writers that continued to have an impact on their writing careers for some time to come.

The New Writing Partnership has now changed their name to the Writing Centre Norwich.