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The New Writers Awards are currently closed. They will reopen in the Spring of 2021.
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.
The awards are free to apply to, all travel expenses are covered and awardees are chosen by a panel of judges.
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.
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.
You can apply if you:
You can't apply if you:
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.
The New Writers Award Access Fund started in 2020. 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).
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)
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.
By supporting our work, you are helping children and adults in Scotland to reach their potential through reading and writing.
Donate now