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Call for Entries as Prize for New Fiction goes Annual

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Call for Entries as Prize for New Fiction goes Annual

The Desmond Elliott Prize 2009

Entry forms are downloadable at www.desmondelliottprize.com

The trustees of The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust are delighted to announce today (Tuesday 23rd September) that the Desmond Elliott Prize will now be an annual event.  Launched in 2007 as a biennial prize to reward and promote first novelists, the success of the inaugural prize in 2008, won by Nikita Lalwani for her novel, Gifted, has prompted the change.

Entries are now invited for the 2009 prize.  A panel of 3 judges, to be announced early next year, will be looking for a novel which has a compelling narrative, arresting characters, and which is both vividly written and confidently realized.

Worth £10,000 to the winner the prize is designed to support new writers and celebrate engaging new fiction. The prize reflects the ideals of the charismatic and successful agent and publisher, Desmond Elliott, who affirmed his confidence and faith in his new authors by offering them 3-book deals, thereby helping to ensure they were free of financial worries and so could write happily and securely.

Dallas Manderson, Chair of the Desmond Elliot Charitable Trust comments:

“We were delighted by the enthusiasm and support from publishers, booksellers, and the reading public for the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize. This inspired the Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust to take the decision to make it an annual prize and continue our intention to promote and support new writers.  We raise a glass, in true Elliott style, to an equally successful 2009.”

Books will be considered from all fiction genres.  As an indicator, last year’s shortlist was: Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (which went on to win), Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, and Sunday at The Cross Bones by John Walsh.

A longlist of 10 titles will be announced in April followed by a shortlist of 3 books in May 2009.  The winner will be announced in June 2009 at a central London venue.  The judging panel will be announced in early 2009.

Entry forms are downloadable at www.desmondelliottprize.com

 

Notes to editors

• The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust is a registered charity. It is chaired by Dallas Manderson, Group Sales Director of Orion Publishing Group. He is joined by Christine Berry, managing partner of Taylor Vinters, one of the leading commercial law firms in Cambridge, and Liz Thomson, journalist and former Editor of Publishing News. Both Dallas and Christine worked with Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books

• The Desmond Elliot Prize is administered by Emma Manderson (ema.manderson@googlemail.com)

• Entry forms and further information is available at www.desmondelliottprize.com

• Deadline for submissions is Friday the 28 November 2008

• The second Desmond Elliott Prize will be awarded in June 2009. A longlist of 10 books will be selected by the prize administrator and announced in April 2009. From the longlist, a shortlist of 3 titles will be chosen by a panel of 3 judges and announced in May 2009

• United Kingdom publishers may enter up to two full-length novels per imprint by authors whose permanent place of residence is in the UK, with scheduled publication dates between April 2008 and April 2009

• Logos and further information is available for Colman Getty 

For further information please contact
Mark Hutchinson or Nazneen Nawaz
at Colman Getty
T: 020 7631 2666
E: nazneen@colmangetty.co.uk

Colman Getty
September 2008

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