Literary Prize for unpublished novels or short story collections

The SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by black and Asian women writers in the UK is now accepting entries for the 2014 Prize. The prize runs biennially and the first award was made in October 2012. The three prize winners receive £2,000, £750 and £250 for first, second and third place. The deadline is March 31st.
The prize has been created and run by Soroptimist International of Leeds, in partnership with the Ilkley Literature Festival and independent publishers Peepal Tree Press and has been supported by Arts Council England,

The Award is open to published and unpublished women writers, over the age of 18, of Black or Asian descent who are resident in the UK. Ethnicity will be self-defined by entrants. As a guideline, Black or Asian descent in the context of the Award signifies any black background, including:-

• Black African

• Black Caribbean

• any other Black background

any Asian background, including

• Bangladeshi

• Indian

• Pakistani

• Thai

• Malay

• Philippine

• Vietnamese

• Chinese

• Japanese

• countries in the Middle East

• any other Asian background

any mixed background, including

• Asian and White

• Black and White

• Any other background from more than one ethnic group.

The Award is open to unpublished novels and/or collections of short stories of any genre of no less than 30,000 words.  Manuscripts that have been previously published will not be eligible. However, whilst the main body of the novel or collection of short stories should comprise unpublished work, submissions will be accepted where no more than 25% of the work has been previously published.  Manuscripts currently available for sale online, either in full or in significant proportion (i.e. more than 50% of the total manuscript) will be ineligible.  Manuscripts either partially or wholly available online for no charge will be eligible.

Submissions are accepted online. To find out more visit the competition website at http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com

photo credit: Paolo Margari via photopin cc