The awards were launched by the New Writing Partnership, a unique enterprise that aims to highlight, develop and support creative writing.
Supported by Arts Council England East, UEA, Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council, the Partnership has 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.
Please note: New Writing Ventures did not run in 2008 and will not run in 2009.
2008
After three successful years we are taking a break to evaluate the impact of the programme and to determine its direction in the future.
Over the past three years we’ve worked with 27 great new writers and seen some amazing collections of poetry and novels published. We have seen writers find agents, change genres, discover whole new areas of interest and most importantly, benefit from in-depth mentoring relationships with established writers that will continue to have an impact on their writing careers for some time to come.
We’d like to thank all the participating writers, mentors, judges and entrants to New Writing Ventures over the past three years, and hope that you’ll keep an eye on the New Writing Ventures website for further news about new developments.
If you’d like to be added to the New Writing Partnership newsletter mailing list to be the first to hear of our new developments with Ventures and the other programmes we run, visit www.newwritingpartnership.org.uk and sign up now!
2007 awards
The winners of the 2007 awards were announced on 12 September 2007 at an awards ceremony held at Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London.
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.
Prize administration
Tarryn McKay at Booktrust
t 020 8516 2972
e tarryn@boooktrust.org.uk
Or visit the New Writing Partnership website
The website also features information about previous New Writing Ventures winners and other New Writing Partnership initiatives.
