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£25,000 for local writers

The 2009 Northern Writers’ Awards have selected seven writers from across the region to receive grants of between £2,500 and £5,000 to support their works in progress and to enable them to develop their careers as full-time writers.

The award-winners share a prize pot of £25,000, which is made available through support from Arts Council England and new sponsor the Leighton Group, which has agreed to invest £30,000 in the awards over the next three years.

Paul Callaghan, of Leighton Group, said: “The Leighton Group is extremely proud to be supporting the Northern Writers’ Awards. We believe that here in the North East we have boundless talent and that such creativity should be supported, encouraged, nurtured and fully acknowledged; the Northern Writers’ Awards do this brilliantly and bring huge credit to New Writing North, all the entrants and most certainly the winners.”

The awards were announced at a special ceremony during the Hexham Book Festival on Sunday 3 May.

Two new writers, Lorna Elliott, a qualified barrister and solicitor who left law to write, and Richard Rippon, a laboratory analyst, were singled out by awards judge and literary agent Carole Blake for particular praise during the judging process.

Carole said: “Because of the vast amount of reading in my job, I have to be really impressed by something if I’m going to pick it out of a pile of submissions and really want to read more of it, but both of these entries intrigued and impressed me. It’s a testament to the scheme that these writers are now supported by New Writing North, and have an industry-recognised award.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .