Call for Submissions:
The Hollick Arvon
Caribbean Writers Prize
Nicholas Laughlin has just told us the exciting news that that the new annual literature prize for emerging Caribbean writers, The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize, opens for entries on June 30. The closing date for the first year will be September 30, 2012.
The new prize, announced during the 2012 NGC Bocas Lit Fest in April, is an open competition for emerging writers living anywhere in the Anglophone region of the Caribbean and writing in English. With a total value of £10,000, it will allow a writer to devote time to advancing a work in progress, and includes a year’s mentoring by an established author, and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course of their choice. The winning writer will also have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by Arvon, in association with Free Word Centre and agents Rogers, Coleridge & White.
The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be offered annually, initially for the next three years and across three literary genres – in year one fiction, year two non-fiction and in year three poetry.
The opening date for entries is 30th June and the closing date for the first year will be September 30, 2012. Writers submitting entries who meet the criteria will have a chance to have their work assessed by a panel comprising Hollick and Arvon representatives, plus an agent from the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency and three representatives of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest (including former judges of the Commonwealth Writers Prize). The first winner will be announced at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in April 2013.
The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize is sponsored by the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the literary charitable trust, the Arvon Foundation, both based in London, in association with the non-profit Bocas Lit Fest, based in Trinidad and Tobago.
Marina Salandy-Brown, Director of NGC Bocas Lit Fest: ‘There are many talented emerging writers in the Caribbean who need tangible support and encouragement to develop their craft skill, and exposure to become published authors. So we are pleased that Arvon and the Hollick Family Charitable Trust have partnered with us to establish this new prize. The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize complements the Festival’s other programmes to support new writers, and we look forward to discovering much amazing new writing in each year’s competition.’
Lady Hollick, Trustee of the Hollick Family Charitable Trust says, ‘The Hollick Family Charitable Trust is very excited about this prize and hopes it will make a difference for emerging writers in the Caribbean. We are proud to be working in partnership with Arvon and the organisers of Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival.’
Ruth Borthwick, Arvon’s Chief Executive is, “thrilled for Arvon to work with Lady Hollick and the NGC Bocas Lit Fest to find and develop the next generation of writers following in the footsteps of Lorna Goodison, Earl Lovelace and Derek Walcott. We look forward to bringing our experience, honed over forty years of supporting writers in Britain, to new Caribbean writers eager to show off their talent on a world stage.’
For enquiries, contact george.palmer@arvonfoundation.org or telephone 011 44 207 324 2554
For more information and to download an entry form, go to www.bocaslitfest.com/hollick-arvon-caribbean-writers-prize.html