Apply now: New Writers Awards

An annual award supporting emerging writers to develop their craft. There are three categories, Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction (also known as creative non-fiction), Poetry and Children’s and Young Adult Fiction.

Applications are now open for the 2021 New Writers Awards. The deadline for all applications is Wednesday 8 July at noon.

Please read this page and the category guidelines carefully before writing and submitting your application.

Apply now

The awards are free to apply to, all travel expenses are covered and awardees are chosen by a panel of judges. This year, we are also introducing a new access fund to help support our awardees with any barriers they may face. The programme is flexible and we work closely with awardees to help them participate as fully as possible.

Entries are invited in English, Scots and a combination of both. There are also two awards for Gaelic writers, run in association with the Gaelic Books Council.

During the programme, awardees receive:

• A £2,000 cash award to support their writing in whatever ways suit best (paid in two installments)
• A retreat offering time, space and the freedom to create new work in idyllic surroundings (subject to ongoing circumstances)
• Tailored creative development opportunities, which can include mentoring from writers and industry professionals
• Press and Marketing, social media performance and presentation training
• The opportunity to showcase work to publishers and agents
• A year’s free membership to the Society of Authors and a bespoke training session for awardees on contracts and rights
• The chance to meet and engage with a group of writing peers

There are three categories, Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction (also known as creative non-fiction), Poetry and Children’s and Young Adult Fiction. You can only apply to one category per year. 

Who can apply?

You can apply if you:

• Are aged 18 or over
• Are based in Scotland
• Are able to demonstrate their passion for developing a career in writing, improving craft and building networks
• Haven't yet published a novel, narrative non-fiction book (e.g. biography or memoir), a collection of short stories or poems, or graphic novel (our panel will consider scripts without images for graphic works)
• Have previously published only non-fiction (eg. Textbooks, guidebooks, standard history books, collections of humour/jokes)
• Have work that's been any of the following: self-published, digitally published, published in a small-scale pamphlet or chapbook (you may find this definition from Stewed Rhubarb Press(this will open in a new window) useful), published as part of an anthology or magazine, or published academically (e.g. standard non-fiction, textbook, academic journal)

Who can't apply?

You can't apply if you:

• Have received a Scottish Arts Council New Writers Bursary, New Writers Award, Callan Gordon Award or Next Chapter Award
• Are currently in receipt of another award from Scottish Book Trust or Creative Scotland
• Are planning to be in full or part time education during the course of the award (January 2021 – January 2022). Short courses and evening classes are fine.
• Are a writer registered on the Live Literature database. Illustrators and Storytellers who are registered on the database may apply to work on writing if they fulfil the criteria above. Performance poets who are registered on the database may not apply for the Poetry category but may apply for other categories
• Already have a book publishing deal in place
• Want to focus on plays, screenplays or radioplays
• Are on staff at Scottish Book Trust
• Are on staff at Scottish Poetry Library and want to apply for the poetry category (the other categories are fine)

By submitting your application, you're confirming you meet the criteria to the best of your knowledge. Anyone who doesn't meet the criteria will be deemed ineligible and may be asked to return the award or withdraw their application.

Access fund and support

The New Writers Award Access Fund is new in 2021. This is a ring-fenced fund to support awardees as part of our work to remove barriers and make our awards as accessible as possible. We welcome and support writers who are carers, unemployed or unable to work for health reasons or who face any other barriers.

You don’t have to apply for this fund separately. If you are successful in applying for a New Writers Award, we will work with you to see how we can best support your time on the programme. This will be different for every writer and we will make assessment based on need. We may offer help with childcare, support attending events, specific equipment or alternative award elements if, for example, you are unable to receive a cash lump sum. If you have any questions about what this means for you, email us at applications@scottishbooktrust.com(this will open in a new window).

Equality and Diversity

Scottish Book Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us monitor how well we’re doing, entrants will be asked to fill in a short Equalities and Diversity survey when completing a New Writers Award application form. The answers will be completely confidential, stored anonymously and separate to your application and will not be accessible by the judges.

We aim to improve and refine our programme year on year. We welcome any feedback about New Writers Awards in general and are particularly interested in comments on our new access fund. Get in touch at applications@scottishbooktrust.com(this will open in a new window)

Privacy

Check our Privacy Statement(this will open in a new window) to see how we use and store information about your application.

By submitting your application, you're confirming you meet the criteria to the best of your knowledge. Anyone who doesn't meet the criteria will be deemed ineligible and may be asked to return the award or withdraw their application.