Karen's blog: Creative Future Literary Awards 2018 Competition

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Creative Future Literary Awards 2018 Competition

The 2018 competition is now open, full details below

CFLA 2018 Competition Now Open

Introducing our #CFLA18 Host, Lemn Sissay, and Guest Author, Kerry Hudson

We’re thrilled to announce that the incredible Lemn Sissay will once again host the CFLA18 awards ceremony at the iconic Southbank Centre. And we’re super-delighted to have award-winning author Kerry Hudson as our guest writer.

Lemn Sissay is this year’s host
Lemn Sissay MBE is a poet, playwright and occasional broadcaster. He has read poetry all over the world and was the first poet commissioned to write for the London Olympics. His Landmark Poems can be found in public spaces from The Royal Festival Hall in London to The British Council Offices in Addis Ababa. Lemn was official poet for The FA Cup 2015 and his Desert Island Discs was pick of the year for BBC Radio 4 2015. Lemn is Chancellor of The University of Manchester, Patron of The Letterbox Club, Canterbury’s Poet Laureate and Trustee of The Foundling Museum and Manchester International Festival.

Kerry Hudson is this year’s guest author

Kerry was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE-CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA was published in 2012 and was the winner of the Scottish First Book Award, shortlisted for the Southbank Sky Arts Literature Award, Guardian First Book Award, Green Carnation Prize, Author’s Club First Novel Prize and the Polari First Book Award. Kerry’s second novel, THIRST, won France’s most prestigious award for foreign fiction the Prix Femina Étranger. She is currently working on a non-fiction book, LOWBORN, and a series of columns for the Pool, which will take her back to the towns of her childhood as she investigates her own past and what it means to be poor in Britain today.

Kerry says: ‘Inclusivity and the telling of stories that might otherwise not be heard are two things which I believe passionately in. Speaking at The Creative Future Literary Awards and being published alongside the unique and talented winners will be a genuine honour.’

Meet our 2018 competition judges

Our FREE to enter annual competition is open. There are over £7,500 worth of cash and writer development prizes up for grabs with the award ceremony set to take place at the iconic Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival.

Our judges are looking for broad interpretations of the theme – Chemistry – in all genres of short fiction and poetry and we thought you might like to meet them. They are: Lemn Sissay, superstar poet and playwright; Aki Schilz, director and driving force behind The Literary Consultancy, the country’s leading literary consultancy; Candida Lacey, the power behind publisher Myriad Editions; Ali Lewis, the director of the wonderful Poetry School and Pat Winslow, award-winning poet and dynamic workshop leader. More information here.

Congratulations to #CFLA17 winner Romalyn Ante and 2017 WIR Dean Atta!

Romalyn and Dean have made shortlists in the prestigious Saboteur Awards. Romalyn for her debut pamphlet Rice & Rain in Best Poetry Pamphlet; Dean in the Best Collaborative Work category for The Black Flamingo with Ben Connors. Huge congratulations to them both.

Now, it’s down to the public to choose – so do consider voting. Voting closes on 9^th May, so there’s still time!

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