Organised by the founding team behind the highly successful Muslim Writers’ Awards, the Brit Writers’ Awards aim to involve up to a million budding writers in their first year.

We want to unleash the hidden literary talent that lies within the UK. There are eleven awards categories, including poetry, novels, entries from under sixteens, and songwriting, and the overall winner, Unpublished Writer of the Year 2010, will receive £10,000.

The national entry deadline is Friday 18 December 2009 and a glittering awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 27 March 2010.

Entries are open to any writers who have not had an ISBN attributed to a publication solely in their name, so if you have been published in a magazine, online, or in an anthology, you are still eligible. Even if you have had an ISBN, you can still take part, as there is a category especially for Published Writer of the Year.

The adult categories are:
• Poetry (for a collection of five entries)
• Short stories (1,000-5,000 words)
• Novels
• Non-fiction
• Children’s stories
• Songwriting
• Diverse Unpublished Writer of the Year (from people of black, minority or ethnic origin)
• Published Writer of the Year

Young writers (ages 5-7, 7-11 and 11-16 ) can enter in three categories:
• Poetry (collection of three entries)
• Short stories (maximum 3,000 words)
• Songwriting

There is a £10.95 entry fee, but subscribers to Writing Magazine and Writers’ News can enter free (see the November issue of WN for your entry code). In addition, schools, businesses and organisations can join, and receive free entries for all of their members, so why not encourage your writing group to sign up?

Visit the website, and start writing now!