Novella prize from Manchester Metropolitan University

23.01.14 | Caroline Carpenter - The Bookseller

Manchester Metropolitan University is launching a new international prize for novellas that is aimed at e-book readers in search of good short reads.  

The prize for the MMU Novella Award will be £1,000 and publication by partner Sandstone Press. Diana Beaumont of Rupert Heath Literary Agency will also give serious consideration to representing the winning author.

The award was established by the Department of Contemporary Arts in MMU’s Chesire Faculty with support from Time to Read, a partnership between twenty-two library authorities in the North West.

Robert Graham, Creative Writing programme leader at MMU Cheshire said that the award is “ideal for book lovers who are on the move and using tablets and e-readers” as “the short novel is experiencing a renaissance at the moment”.

Managing director of Sandstone Press, Robert Davidson, pointed out that “the novella is a form that has given us such classic works as Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain and Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea” and said he was “proud” to be a partner in the “fine project”.

Entries must be between 20,000 and 40,000 words long, and the closing date for the competition is 23rd May.

The judging panel will be led by novelist Jenn Ashworth, author of A Kind of Intimacy and Cold Light (both published by Sceptre).

The winner of the award will be announced at a one-day Novella Festival at MMU’s Cheshire campus in July 2014, where there will also be readings, talks and panel discussions.