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Shortlist

Diagram Prize 2004

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:40pm
The 2004 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

The prize this year goes to the quite barmy Bombproof Your Horse, which even in these troubling times would seem to be advocating taking things a bit far...  Read more

Diagram Prize 2005

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:40pm
The 2005 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

The shortlist for the 2005 prize was announced recently.  My favourite competition of the year is run by columnist Horace Bent in the Bookseller (the UK book trade weekly) with input from dedicated odd title hunters from all over the world.  Read more

T S Eliot 2006 Shortlist

T S Eliot Prize 2006 shortlist announcement and School Shadowing Scheme

The Poetry Book SocietySpecialist book club founded by T S Eliot in 1953, which aims to offer the best new poetry published in the UK and Ireland. Members buy at 25% discount. The PBS has a handsome new website at  www.poetrybooks.co.uk has just announced the Shortlist for the T S Eliot Prize 2006, to be awarded to the writer of the best new collection of poetry published in 2006.

Judges Sean O'Brien (Chair), Sophie Hannah and Gwenyth Lewis chose the following ten collections:  Read more

© WritersServices 2016-16

Diagram Prize 2006

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:38pm
The 2006 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

The shortlist for the 2006 prize has received unprecedented international coverage, from the Orlando Sentinel to the Hindu. In the UK listeners were bemused by the Today programme running a competition for listeners to imagine the titles were for a novel and to write the opening paragraphs.  Read more

T S Eliot Shortlist 2007

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:37pm
The 2007 T S Eliot Prize and Shadowing Scheme

The shortlist has just been announced for the 2007 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry, awarded by the Poetry Book SocietySpecialist book club founded by T S Eliot in 1953, which aims to offer the best new poetry published in the UK and Ireland. Members buy at 25% discount. The PBS has a handsome new website at  www.poetrybooks.co.uk for the best new collection published in the UK and Ireland during 2007.

The shortlist is:  Read more

Diagram Prize shortlist 2007

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:36pm
The 2007 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

Here's the wonderful shortlist for the 2007 Diagram Prize; this really does looks like a vintage year.  Read more

Diagram Prize shortlist 2008

The 2008 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

Here's the shortlist for the 2008 Diagram Prize.  It looks like it's going to be another strong year.  Read more

© Chris Holifield 2016-16

T S Eliot Prize shortlist 2009

Thu, 28/07/2016 - 9:36pm
The shortlist for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry

The Poetry Book SocietySpecialist book club founded by T S Eliot in 1953, which aims to offer the best new poetry published in the UK and Ireland. Members buy at 25% discount. The PBS has a handsome new website at  www.poetrybooks.co.uk has announced the shortlist for 'the world's top poetry award' (the Independent).

Judges Simon Armitage (Chair), Colette Bryce and Penelope Shuttle have chosen the following 10 collections from the 98 new books published in 2009 submitted by UK and Irish publishers:  Read more

Bad Sex Award 2009

The shortlist for the 2009 Bad Sex Award

The shortlist for one of the more entertaining literary competitions of the year has just been announced. Run by the Literary Review, it features a number of established names, showing that a literary reputation is no guard against writing bad sex scenes. The shortlist, which features only one woman, is:

Paul Theroux for A Dead Hand  Read more

© WritersServices 2016-16

Diagram Prize shortlist 2009

The 2009 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year

The winner of the 2009 Diagram Prize has now been announced

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Dr Daina Taimina (A K Peters) has won the 2009 Diagram Prize, having received the majority of the public vote for the oddest titled book of the year at thebookseller.com.  Read more

© Chris Holifield 2016-16
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4 January 2021 - What's new

January 2021
  • ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories.
  Read more

The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition

Information

Closing date: 
1 March 2021
Entry: 
Open internationally. Entry fee £28, £25 to subscribers to The North
Prize: 
Publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books

The 2021 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is now open for entries

Judged by Daljit Nagra & Pascale Petit

DEADLINE: last post on Monday 1st March 2021, or midnight on Monday 1st March 2021 for online entrants.

ENTRY FEE: £28, or £25 for North subscribers, Friends of the Poetry Business and members of the Poetry Society.  Read more

'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.'

— C. JoyBell C.

'I have to know where I'm going'

4 January 2021

‘When I'm putting together a novel, I leave all the doors and windows open so the characters can come in and just as easily leave. I don't take notes. Once I start writing things down, I feel like I'm nailing the story in place. When I rely on my faulty memory, the pieces are free to move.  Read more

28 December 2020 - What's new

December 2020
  • ‘No one reads your book as closely as a translator does, which is something you learn very quickly. I'm in such awe of them. They also read beneath it and around it. They make me consider things I thought I knew the meaning of because I use those words in everyday dialect and that's how the characters express themselves.
  Read more