Awards
East Midlands Book Award
The East Midlands Book Award is an independent, annual award that was first awarded in 2011 for the best book of 2010.
£1000 will be given to a writer of Fiction (including work aimed at young people), Creative Non-Fiction, or Poetry. The aim of the award is to promote writers who live in the East Midlands, to raise the profile of the thriving literary scene in the region, and to reward exceptional work.
Nominations are invited from local, national and international publishers. A panel of judges is chosen each year to shortlist submissions and make the final award. A shortlist of up to six books will be announced in April of each year and promoted through bookshops, libraries and reading groups. An award ceremony will be held each June – in the first year it was held at the Lowdham Book Festival, June 2011.
The judges for the 2011 East Midlands Book Award are eminent composer Gavin Bryars, Debbie James of the Bookshop at Kibworth in Leicestershire and Professor Marion Shaw, authority on nineteenth and twentieth century literature.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 1ST DECEMBER 2011
The East Midlands Book Award 2010 was sponsored and supported by the law firm Nelsons, Hart’s Hotel and Restaurant in Nottingham and Gardners Books.
To view the East Midlands Book Award 2010 shortlist see here, and see here for the nominations.
Contact Aimee Wilkinson for further information at aimee@writingeastmidlands.co.uk or 0115 959 7929
COMPETITION RULES
• Send covering letter and four copies of the book to:
EMBA, Writing East Midlands, 49 Stoney St, The Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1 1LX
• The covering letter needs to simply state East Midlands Book Award, relevant contact details for the agent or publisher, and the address and email address of the writer.
• To be eligible the first edition of the books must have been physically published between January 1 and December 31 of the year preceding the award.
• Nominations must have been received between April 1 and December 1 of the year preceding the prize award.
• Judges may call in other eligible works but, otherwise, late submissions will not be considered.
• Books must be submitted by agents or publishers, nominations from individuals will not be considered.
• Please note, the setting or the subject of the book need not have any connection to the region.
• Self-published books, chapbooks and pamphlets are not eligible.
• Work by writers under sixteen is not eligible for this award.
• Four copies of each nominated book must be submitted.
• To be eligible for the award, the book’s author must be on the electoral register in one of the East Midlands’ counties (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland) during the period of publication.
Please note, while we welcome books published by international publishers where the submission meets all criteria, the book must be available for purchase through the UK book trade.
Although most books published after 1st December in any given year will be printed ahead of that time, if that is not possible we will accept proof copies or galleys to enable publishers to meet our deadlines.
Non- residents are not eligible.
Notes:
The term ‘creative non-fiction’ will be generously interpreted by the judges but is not intended to include guide books, textbooks, anthologies or similar. Edited anthologies would normally be ineligible, save for collections where the majority of the writers and the editor(s) live within the region.
EMBA welcomes submissions from publishers or agents except:
- where material is directly self-published by the writer
- where the writer is expected to contribute financially to the production or publishing process
- where a publishing company has been set up expressly to publish the work of its owner or the partner of the owner
- where publishing is dependent on the author buying a number of copies of the work.
This exclusion therefore covers all forms of “vanity”, subsidy, “joint venture” or “shared responsibility publishing”. We value the editorial support and independence that professional publishers supply.
The trustees of the award are David Belbin, Ross Bradshaw, John Lucas and Jane Streeter, each acting in an individual capacity. This independent book award is administered by Writing East Midlands.
Writing East Midlands supports, promotes, and champions writing from the region. It creates opportunities for practising writers and discovers new writers of quality.
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