The Emerging Writer Award


Established in 2015, the Emerging Writer Award (formerly the Bridge Award) is run by Moniack Mhor in partnership with The Bridge Awards,  a philanthropic venture that provides funding for the arts, cultural heritage, conservation, and community projects.

The 2024 award winner will receive a tailor-made package worth up to £2,000 including tuition via open courses, retreat time and/or mentoring at Moniack Mhor.  

The 2024 Emerging Writer Award is now open for entries. It will close at 23:59 on 30th November 2023.


Eligibility

The Emerging Writer Award is open to unpublished prose writers (fiction) living in the UK with a collection of short stories or novel in development. Writers can be writing for any age group (including children and young adults) and may have had excerpts or articles published in the past, but have not yet published any major body of work. We would particularly encourage applications from those who experience barriers to the writing process.

Poetry, playwriting, screenwriting and works of non-fiction are all ineligible. Writers who have had a major body of work published in a form other than fiction are also ineligible (e.g. a poetry collection, or a non-fiction book-length work).

Writers who are agented and otherwise meet all the eligibility criteria are eligible. Writers who have only self-published their works are eligible.


Application

The 2024 Emerging Writer Award is now open for entries. It will close at 23:59 on 30th November 2023.

Please apply by sending one document, preferably in Microsoft Word format, which includes:

  • A cover letter outlining your work in progress and how this award will benefit your work (up to one A4 page)
  • A 2000-word sample of work.
    • This does not need to be directly related to work in progress, but please make clear if that is not the case.
    • We will allow up to 10% over the 2000-word limit if the piece requires it.
  • Please include your name in the document title only. The document will be renamed before being sent to the judging panel. Do not include your name within the document as judging takes place anonymously. You can include any non-identifying information on your writing and/or career in your cover letter if relevant.

AND

We would also appreciate if you were able to complete our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Monitoring Form, link to online form here. The information in this form is gathered anonymously.

Application Checklist:
Attached to email – One document containing cover letter and sample of work (title of document applicant name, but no name within contents)
Attached to email – Separate document with CV (can include name)
Submitted online (link above) – Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion Monitoring Form (optional)

Applications should be sent by email to awards@moniackmhor.org.uk with the subject line: Emerging Writer Award. You will receive an automatic email confirming receipt of your submission.  Please contact us on info@moniackmhor.org.uk if you do not receive the automatic reply. (Please do check spam or junk folder first.)

Applications can also be submitted by post to Moniack Mhor  Creative Writing Centre, Teavarran, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire IV4 7HT. Please let us know by email or phone if you are submitting by post.

For any enquiries relating to the Emerging Writer Award, please contact us on awards@moniackmhor.org.uk or telephone 01463 592 828.

Please note that due to the large number of applications to this Award, the judging process can take approximately four months from the closing date. We do let all applicants know the outcome of their submission, but we are unfortunately unable to give detailed feedback.


2023 Winners

Emerging Writer Award 2023 Winner Harminder Kaur is working on a novel about madness. In 2021 she was awarded the ...

2022 Winners

Natalia Theodoridou is a queer writer of strange stories that exist in the interstices between literary and speculative fiction. He ...

2020 Winners

Rebecca Ferrier is a ghost-writer, editor and journalist. Her work has featured in both print and online in publications such ...

2019 Winners

The Winner of the Emerging Writer Award 2019 was Hannah Kelly, a writer and artist living in Edinburgh. She leads ...

2018 Winners

The 2018 Emerging Writer Award received an overwhelming amount of entries in 2018. The quality of entries was also incredibly ...

2017 Winner

Moniack Mhor and The Bridge Awards are delighted to announce Rue Baldry as the winner of the 2017 Emerging Writer ...

2016 Winners

Heather Parry was the winner of the 2016 Emerging Writer Award. Heather Parry is a writer and editor who travelled ...

2015 Winner

The winner of the 2015 Bridge Award was Vicky MacKenzie, a poet and fiction writer from Fife. Vicky received a ...

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