(Note: All entrants for the Unpublished Novel, Unpublished Children’s Story, Unpublished Poetry and Unpublished Short Story prize must be a permanent resident in the United Kingdom. Entrants for all other categories can be from outside the United Kingdom.)
The Muslim Writers Awards is back, and this year it's bigger than ever! With more prizes and partners, this year's ceremonies and host of events will be form the Muslim Writers Awards Festival, making it the largest Muslim writing event in the world!
The Festival welcomes submissions from writers across the world. We have a broad range of categories from screen play to novel writing to journalism.
As always shortlisted entries will be assessed by panels of esteemed judges, and the shortlisted entrants will be invited to a high-profile televised Awards ceremony scheduled for November 2012 in London. Our awards ceremonies are an opportunity to showcase talent from both published and unpublished writers. We work with a number of literary agents and publishers who are eager to read and review writing submitted to us.
MUSLIM WRITERS AWARDS 2012
The Muslim Writers Awards 2012 is calling submissions from over 16 writers for the following categories:
- Unpublished Novel Prize
- Unpublished Short Story Prize
- Unpublished Poetry Prize
- Unpublished Children’s Story Prize
- Stage and Screen Play Prize
- Young Journalist Prize (16-25)
- Published Novel Prize
- Published Children's Book Prize
- Published Non-Fiction: People and Places
- Published Non-Fiction: Culture
- Published Non-Fiction: History and Politics
To submit work for unpublished categories, Stage and Screenplay and Young Journalist prize, please click here.
To submit for the Published catergories, please download and complete the relevant Entry Form, below.
ELIGIBILITY
- All entries must be submitted in the English language.
- All entries must be original and the authors own unaided work.
- Submissions must not infringe any copyright or contain defamatory or otherwise unlawful matter.
- All entrants must be over the age of 16. Entrants for the Young Journalist prize must be aged 16-25 at the time of the closing date.
- All entrants for the Unpublished Novel, Unpublished Children’s Story, Unpublished Poetry and Unpublished Short Story prize must be a permanent resident in the United Kingdom. Entrants for all other categories can be from outside the United Kingdom.
- Entries submitted in previous Muslim Writers Awards competitions will not be accepted.
- Entrants for the Unpublished Novel, Unpublished Children’s Story, Unpublished Poetry and Unpublished Short Story must not have had work previously published or accepted for publication that fits within the category they wish to submit to.
- It is a condition of entry that any entrant in the Unpublished Novel, Unpublished Children’s Story, Unpublished Poetry and Unpublished Short Story categories whose submission is accepted for publication by any publisher anywhere in the world before the awards ceremony must withdraw their entry by notifying the organisers via mail@muslimwritersawards.org.uk.
- Entries for the Stage and Screen Play prize will not be accepted if they have been optioned or sold.
- Entries for the Published Novel prize, Published Non-Fiction (People + Places), Published Non-Fiction (Culture), and Published Non-Fiction (History + Politics) will be accepted if they have been first published after the 1st August 2011.
- Entries for the Published Children’s Book prize will be accepted if they have been published after the 15th August 2011.
- Entries for the Unpublished Short Story prize must not exceed 8,000 words.
- Entries for the Unpublished Novel and Unpublished Children’s Story prize must be a minimum of 8,000 words.
- Entries for the Stage and Screen Play prize must be no shorter than ten minutes stage/screen time.
- For both the Young Journalist prize and the Unpublished Poetry award, entrants may submit up to three articles/poems. All articles/poems must be placed in one Microsoft Word document, with each article/poem clearly labelled with their respective titles.
- For all other categories, only one entry per category will be accepted.
- For the Unpublished Novel award, the Unpublished Short Story award, and the Unpublished Children’s Story award please include a short synopsis of the work (up to 500 words).
- The closing date for the competition is midnight on the 20th July 2012. Submissions will not be accepted after this date.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
- For all published categories, seven copies of the book must be sent to Muslim Writers Awards, E1 Business Centre, 7 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1DU, with a completed Entry Form available to download, below.
- All unpublished entries must be submitted electronically through our online submissions managers, Submittable.com. Entrants should complete all the required fields on Submittable.com when submitting their work. Once received, entries cannot be amended.
- Unpublished submissions should be typed in font Times New Roman, font size 11, in a Microsoft Word document format, with numbered pages. Submissions must bear the title of the entry in the ‘Header’ of each page, and must not bear the authors name.
- The submission of an authors work by the publisher/agent will be taken as agreement by the author that he/she is willing for the submitted work to be considered.
- The closing date for the competition is midnight on 20th July 2012.
SELECTION PROCESS
Judging for the Muslim Writers Awards will be as follows:
- Stage 1: A team of readers will read all submissions and select the top five entries, comprising the shortlist.
- Stage 2: The shortlisted entries will be put to the judging panels which will assess the entries, giving each a score.
- Stage 3: The judging panels will convene to discuss the winner of the prize.
- Stage 4: Shortlisted entrants will be invited to the awards ceremony to be held in London in November 2012, where the winners will be announced. More details will be available closer to the time.
The decisions of the judging panel are final and binding, and Muslim Writers Awards will not enter into correspondence or negotiation regarding the results.
Due to the high volume of submissions, the organisers are unable to contact all entrants to inform them of their progression through the selection process. Details of winners will be made available on the Muslim Writers Awards website after the Awards ceremony.
PUBLICITY
- Each winner will agree to take part in publicity for the promotion of the Awards which will include - but is not restricted to - his/her name and photograph being used. Writers will not receive payment for this.
- Winners will retain the copyright to their work but grant Muslim Writers Awards the right to publish their work in the anthology and excerpts on the Muslim Writers Awards website.
- Submissions do not need to be centred on topics of Islam or Muslim identity, however these are equally welcome.
- All entrants agree to have their email address added to the MWA mailing list.
- The submission of an entry will be deemed to imply the acceptance of these conditions of entry.
Download: published novel entry form, published children's book entry form, published non-fiction culture entry form, published non-fiction history and politics entry form, published non-fiction people and placed entry form
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries: mail@muslimwritersawards.org.uk
For submissions: Muslim Writers Awards, E1 Business Centre, 7 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1DU
Website: http://muslimwritersawards.org.uk/
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