The Dundee International Book Prize 2017 to open for entries

Published On Mon 30 Jan 2017 by Cara Longmuir

The prestigious Dundee International Book Prize will open for unpublished authors to polish their manuscripts and stake their claim for £5,000 and a publishing deal with Freight Books.

Submissions are being sought for the 2017 award from Monday, 30^th January. The prize also offers a week of protected writing time in the City of Discovery as well as the coveted publishing contract and cash prize.

Writers with a spellbinding, unpublished novel have until midnight on Monday, 13th March to enter the competition, which attracts hundreds of entries every year.

All will be read before a shortlist is drawn up later in the year. The judging panel will then debate the merits of the finalists before the winner is announced at the Dundee Literary Festival in October.

The competition is a joint venture between the 'Dundee - One City, Many Discoveries' campaign and Literary Dundee, which is part of the University of Dundee and is in place to celebrate readers and writers, and bring the very best writers in the world to the city.

Peggy Hughes of Literary Dundee, said, “Our calendar year gets started in earnest when submissions open for the Dundee International Book Prize. Reading new, unpublished fiction by authors from all over the world is a privilege and I can't wait to see what people send to us this year.”

Will Dawson convener of Dundee City Council's city development committee said, “Many writers will be looking forward to this announcement so that they can enter their creations into this prestigious competition. Our city enjoys a packed calendar of literary events and the Book Prize remains a real highlight. I never envy the judges their task as the quality of entries is so high.”

It is open to authors from around the world, and twelve writers have won the Prize since its inception in 2000. Last year’s winner was Jessica Thummel with ‘The Cure for Lonely’, a coming-of-age story of Sam Gavin, a transman who moves from Kansas to San Francisco in the summer of 1989. It will be published later this year.

Over the years, several finalists have also gone on to gain publishing details thanks to the profile the Prize offered them, demonstrating the strength of the competition. This year, made possible with kind support from the Bridge Awards, the organisers have produced a series of short videos offering practical writing advice from established authors including novelists Kevin MacNeil, Karen Campbell and J David Simons. These will be available from Tuesday 31^st January from www.freightbooks.co.uk. 

Adrian Searle of Freight Books said ‘‘It’s such a pleasure and privilege to be involved in the Dundee International Book Prize, an amazing boon for emerging writers. It has established itself as one of the foremost literary awards of its type internationally and we fully expect to see another bumper crop of manuscripts this year.”

There is no minimum or maximum length to the manuscript but it must be the author's debut novel. 

The closing date is 13th March 2017. The winner will be informed of their success in July and the winner will be announced at the Dundee Literary Festival in October.

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For media enquiries contact:
Cara Longmuir
Media Relations Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 385243
Email: c.z.longmuir@dundee.ac.uk