The competition is organized by the Deborah Rogers Foundation. Applications are open to writers who have not previously published a full-length book of their own prose writing (including self-published or published on-line) excluding a collection of their own poetry.  Entrants must reside in the British Commonwealth or Eire.

An award of £10,000 will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates outstanding literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their work. Applicants may not be under contract to any publisher for any work or title in any language.

Submissions should take the form of 15,000-20,000 words of a work in progress. The submitted work can be fiction, non-fiction, children’s or short stories.

The competition is free to enter.

The winner receives £10,000 and the two shortlisted authors £1,000 each.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.