New Voices Award
The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation, in partnership with Bonnier Books UK, is thrilled to open the New Voices Award, to assist a new pool of brilliant writers in launching their writing careers.
We expect entries to be distinctive, transportive, ‘unputdownable’, and, most importantly, to take us on a journey. We want to meet characters who inspire us through their actions or resilience, and travel to or come from regions that broaden our horizons. We are looking for ideas that excite us, a writing style that keeps us turning the pages and writers who teach us something new about ourselves or the world.
We know excellence doesn’t happen overnight, so this award will support five individuals by providing them with regular one-to-one mentoring and editorial guidance from a first-class editor, developing their manuscript over the course of eight months, from fledgling idea to complete first draft. Writers must be prepared to commit time over those eight months to complete their work, which we expect to be around 70,000 words. Once finished, each manuscript will be considered by publisher Bonnier Books UK and all writers will receive guidance on seeking a literary agent.
Please read the full details on The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation website to ensure your work is what we're looking for.
Eligibility | Terms and Conditions: To ensure this competition is for you, carefully consider the criteria listed under ‘What We’re Looking For’, to be found here.
Submission of entry is taken to be an unqualified acceptance of these rules:
- The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
- The writer must not be represented by a literary agent.
- The writer must be aged 18 years or over.
- The writer must never have had a novel published by a recognised trade publisher or have signed a contract to publish a novel in the future.
- If the writer has self-published novels previously, the writer remains eligible to enter with a new work.
- The work must be intended for adult readers. We do not accept children's or young adult novels.
- The submission must be the first three chapters of a novel, not exceeding 10,000 words.
- If the writer submits their work in other competitions and wins, they should notify us. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we may ask the writer to withdraw their submission.
- Entries must be submitted digitally as a .doc, or .docx. Entries should be in double-spaced font size 12.
- There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript as we operate an initial concealed reading process.
We reserve the right:
- to not award any of/all of the places where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the panel’s overall verdict is that the level of entries is not up to the required standard
- to delay the process should the number of entries exceed expectations
- to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entrant has breached any of these rules. We cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition
- to amend these rules where it is deemed necessary to do so or where circumstances are beyond our control
We will act in accordance with current UK data protection legislation in relation to your personal data.
Please contact charlotte@wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org if you have any questions.
Open for submissions: 1st March - 30th April 2024
Shortlist announced: Summer 2024, date TBC
Winner announced: Autumn 2024, date TBC
Prize: £1,000 and digital publication
Submission: Young writers must submit a short adventure story between 1500-3000 words in length.
Please read the guidelines before submitting your entry for Author of Tomorrow (16-21 years).
Terms & Conditions
Submission of entry is taken to be an unqualified acceptance of these rules:
- The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
- Stories entered must be in English and within the word count specified for the category being entered into.
- Stories entered must be the Author’s own original work, written independently.
- On the date of submission, stories entered must not have won another competition or have been published outside of your academic institution. You must notify us if your story is published outside of your academic institution, or you are shortlisted or win another competition with it, prior to the date that the shortlist is announced. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we reserve the right to withdraw your entry from consideration.
- You may submit multiple entries. Each entry must be submitted separately and will be considered a separate entry.
- Entries must be submitted digitally, as a word .doc or .docx. Please contact charlotte@wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org if you have any questions about file type.
- There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript. This is to ensure that our judges do not know the names of the authors of the entries they are reading.
- If your entry is shortlisted it will be published on Worldreader’s BookSmart app. By entering the competition, you agree to your story being published by Worldreader in this way. The story will be online and available free of charge for readers anywhere in the world there is internet. The author still owns the story.
- We may also publish extracts of shortlisted and prizewinning entries on our website and in other publicity for the awards and the Foundation. Authors names and ages will be published if they are a winner, shortlisted or commended.
- If your entry is shortlisted, we require an image of the Author to use for promotional purposes, including for example, website and social media content. If the Author is under the age of 18, we require permission from the Author's parent or legal guardian.
- We cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition.
- These Terms & Conditions are governed by the exclusive laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
We reserve the right:
- to not award some or all of the prizes, where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the judges' overall verdict is that the level of entries is not up to the required standard.
- to extend the judging process should the number of entries exceed expectations.
- to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entry does not comply with these Terms & Conditions.
- to amend these Terms & Conditions where it is deemed necessary to do.
We will act in accordance with current UK data protection legislation in relation to your personal data.
Open for submissions: 1st March - 30th April 2024
Shortlist announced: Summer 2024, date TBC
Winner announced: Autumn 2024, date TBC
Prize: £250 plus £150 in book tokens for your school, library or charity of choice. Your story will also be published digitally.
Submission: Young writers must submit a short adventure story between 1000-2000 words in length.
Please read the guidelines before submitting your entry for Author of Tomorrow (12-15 years).
Terms & Conditions
Submission of entry is taken to be an unqualified acceptance of these rules:
- The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
- Stories entered must be in English and within the word count specified for the category being entered into.
- Stories entered must be the Author’s own original work, written independently.
- On the date of submission, stories entered must not have won another competition or have been published outside of your academic institution. You must notify us if your story is published outside of your academic institution, or you are shortlisted or win another competition with it, prior to the date that the shortlist is announced. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we reserve the right to withdraw your entry from consideration.
- You may submit multiple entries. Each entry must be submitted separately and will be considered a separate entry.
- Entries must be submitted digitally, as a word .doc or .docx. Please contact charlotte@wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org if you have any questions about file type.
- There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript. This is to ensure that our judges do not know the names of the authors of the entries they are reading.
- If your entry is shortlisted it will be published on Worldreader’s BookSmart app. By entering the competition, you agree to your story being published by Worldreader in this way. The story will be online and available free of charge for readers anywhere in the world there is internet. The author still owns the story.
- We may also publish extracts of shortlisted and prizewinning entries on our website and in other publicity for the awards and the Foundation. Authors names and ages will be published if they are a winner, shortlisted or commended.
- If your entry is shortlisted, we require an image of the Author to use for promotional purposes, including for example, website and social media content. If the Author is under the age of 18, we require permission from the Author's parent or legal guardian.
- We cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition.
- These Terms & Conditions are governed by the exclusive laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
We reserve the right:
- to not award some or all of the prizes, where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the judges' overall verdict is that the level of entries is not up to the required standard.
- to extend the judging process should the number of entries exceed expectations.
- to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entry does not comply with these Terms & Conditions.
- to amend these Terms & Conditions where it is deemed necessary to do.
We will act in accordance with current UK data protection legislation in relation to your personal data.
Open for submissions: 1st March - 30th April 2024
Shortlist announced: Summer 2024, date TBC
Winner announced: Autumn 2024, date TBC
Prize: £100, plus £150 in book tokens for your school, library or charity of choice. Your story will also be published digitally.
Submission: Young writers must submit a short adventure story up to and including 500 words in length.
Please read the guidelines before submitting your entry for Author of Tomorrow (11 and under).
Terms & Conditions:
Submission of entry is taken to be an unqualified acceptance of these rules:
- The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
- Stories entered must be in English and within the word count specified for the category being entered into.
- Stories entered must be the Author’s own original work, written independently.
- On the date of submission, stories entered must not have won another competition or have been published outside of your academic institution. You must notify us if your story is published outside of your academic institution, or you are shortlisted or win another competition with it, prior to the date that the shortlist is announced. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we reserve the right to withdraw your entry from consideration.
- You may submit multiple entries. Each entry must be submitted separately and will be considered a separate entry.
- Entries must be submitted digitally, as a word .doc or .docx. Please contact charlotte@wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org if you have any questions about file type.
- There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript. This is to ensure that our judges do not know the names of the authors of the entries they are reading.
- If your entry is shortlisted it will be published on Worldreader’s BookSmart app. By entering the competition, you agree to your story being published by Worldreader in this way. The story will be online and available free of charge for readers anywhere in the world there is internet. The author still owns the story.
- We may also publish extracts of shortlisted and prizewinning entries on our website and in other publicity for the awards and the Foundation. Authors names and ages will be published if they are a winner, shortlisted or commended.
- If your entry is shortlisted, we require an image of the Author to use for promotional purposes, including for example, website and social media content. If the Author is under the age of 18, we require permission from the Author's parent or legal guardian.
- We cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition.
- These Terms & Conditions are governed by the exclusive laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
We reserve the right:
- to not award some or all of the prizes, where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the judges' overall verdict is that the level of entries is not up to the required standard.
- to extend the judging process should the number of entries exceed expectations.
- to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entry does not comply with these Terms & Conditions.
- to amend these Terms & Conditions where it is deemed necessary to do.
We will act in accordance with current UK data protection legislation in relation to your personal data.