Announcing an Exciting New Literary Prize

We’re delighted to be part of the SI Leeds Literary Prize - a new award for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women resident in the UK aged 18 years and over.

The prize has been created, and is being run, by Soroptimist International of Leeds, in partnership with Ilkley Literature Festival and the highly regarded independent publishers, Peepal Tree Press.

The prize aims to act as a loudspeaker for Black and Asian women’s voices, and a platform to discover and celebrate exciting new talent, from a group largely under-represented on our bookshelves.

In the words of the prize’s patron, Bidisha: “The prize is a testament to the importance and manifest talent of women and a tribute to the gift of cultural, national, ethnic and linguistic diversity. The prize is important and necessary but, more than that, it is introduced to the world as an act of joy, happiness and the discovery of new work. Join us in celebration.”

The deadline for submissions is 1 June 2012, and the inaugural prize will be awarded at the Ilkley Literature Festival in October 2012.

For more information on the prize, including entry forms, go to   www.sileedsliteraryprize.com and follow the prize on Facebook and Twitter.

Or contact: info@sileedsliteraryprize.com

FAQs

Q: I’m a published writer – am I still eligible to enter the prize?

A: Yes – published and unpublished writers are eligible, so long as the manuscript submitted has not been published.

Q: My manuscript has been published online – does this count as being published?

A: If your work is available online free of charge, this is eligible for submission to the prize.  Manuscripts currently available for sale online, either in full or significant proportion (i.e. more than 50% of the total manuscript) are ineligible – sorry.

Q: I have written more than 30,000 words but my book is not yet finished.  Do I have to submit the full manuscript?

A: Yes – the prize is only open to complete and finished manuscripts.  The deadline for submissions is 1 June 2012, so you have plenty of time to complete your work.

Q: Is work that has been translated from English and published in another language, but has not been published in English, eligible for entry?

A: Yes, work translated from English and published in another language, but which has not yet been published in English, is eligible for entry, provided that it meets the stated criteria for originality – i.e. that the work in English is the author’s own original work.

Q: I am a UK-based woman but I am not sure if I am eligible to enter because of my ethnicity. Can you help?

A: The prize is open to a broad range of ethnicities, as self-defined by entrants.  See the website for full details.

Q: How do I enter?

A: Use the entry form and cover sheet available to download on the prize website and before you enter, check the terms and conditions of the prize, also on the website.  All entries are judged anonymously, so you need to ensure that your entry is submitted in the right format.  Send your entry together with your fee of £15 to the address given on the website: http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com/how-to-enter/