The SI Leeds Literary Prize is the prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women resident in the UK aged 18 years and over.  A biennial award, the 2014 Prize was launched at the 2013 Ilkley Literature Festival – submissions can be made online from 1 December 2013, with a deadline of 31 March 2014 using this link: 
Submit to SI Leeds Literary Prize

The prize aims to act as a loudspeaker for Black and Asian women’s voices, enabling fresh and original literary voices from a group disproportionately under-represented in mainstream literary culture to reach new audiences.

In addition to the cash awards, in 2014 the winning author will receive a free place on an Arvon creative writing course of their choice.  The runner-up and third placed author will receive a free place at a writer development event by The Literary Consultancy (TLC) at the Free Word Centre.  Peepal Tree Press will offer the three non-placed authors from the shortlist 2 one-to-one consultancy sessions in professional development support through its Inscribe programme.  The top three placed authors will receive manuscript assessment from TLC on the first 100 pages of their manuscripts.  With the winner’s consent, the winning manuscript will be given very serious consideration for publication by Peepal Tree Press, if this is considered to be the best fit for the book.  In addition, all shortlisted writers will be invited to read short extracts from their work at the 2014 Ilkley Literature Festival as part of the award event.

We have a distinguished panel of judges for 2014: Gail Bolland (co-ordinator), Elise Dillsworth, Kadija George, Sue Woodford-Hollick OBE and Kerry Young (chair).  Margaret Busby OBE is our Prize Ambassador and joins the influential writers and thinkers who support the Prize as patrons.

We will shortly be announcing a series of free writer development workshops in Leeds and Liverpool, run in partnership with Leeds Libraries and Writing on the Wall.  Please watch this space!

The inaugural prize was awarded in October 2012 as part of the Ilkley Literature Festival:

• 1st prize of £2,000 was awarded to Minoli Salgado for A Little Dust on the Eyes
• Runner-up prize of £750 was awarded to Karen Onojaife for Borrowed Light
• Two writers shared the third prize of £250: Emily Midorikawa for A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, and Jane Steele for Storybank: The Milkfarm Years

The winner of the SI Readers’ Choice was also announced at the award ceremony: this is an award for one entry from the long list which was the favourite of a group of readers drawn from the membership of Soroptimist International.  The winner of the SI Readers’ Choice was Karen Onojaife for Borrowed Light.  There is no cash prize for this award, but Karen received a beautiful original artwork by Bidisha, one of the Prize’s patrons.

The Prize is an initiative of Soroptimist International of Leeds, an organisation dedicated to the development and support of women.  Soroptimist International works globally to help women achieve their potential and have an equal voice, and these principles are embedded in the SI Leeds Literary Prize.  To develop and deliver the prize, SI Leeds works in partnership with two well established and respected Yorkshire-based literature organisations, Ilkley Literature Festival and Peepal Tree Press.  These two organisations have an enviable track record in literature development, and bring significant experience and skills to the Prize team.  Both organisations have a strong reputation for their work in promoting and developing black and minority ethnic writers.

Find out more about the Prize by watching this video:

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SI Leeds Literary Prize has received funding from Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts, which has enabled it develop new partnerships, offer additional support for both the 2012 cohort and our 2014 winners, and run a series of free writer development workshops in Leeds and Liverpool.  We are extremely grateful to Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts for its support.