University of Warwick Launches £50,000 Writing Prize

[Stewart]

University of Warwick Launches £50,000 Writing Prize

'I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity'

(Physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes)

How does writing evolve? Where is its moving edge? Is all writing - at its very best - a type of creative writing? To explore these questions - and to identify excellence and innovation in new writing - The University of Warwick is today launching the £50, 000 Warwick Prize for Writing.

This substantial prize stands out as an international and cross-disciplinary award. It will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. The theme will change with every prize: the 2009 theme is Complexity.

All members of the University of Warwick Staff - from nursery staff and gardeners to professors and porters - are invited to make a nomination for a prize entry by August. Warwick's honorary professors and honorary graduates will also be asked to make nominations.

China Miéville, award- winning writer of what he describes as 'weird fiction', will chair the panel of five judges. Other judges include mathematician Professor Ian Stewart and literary blogger Stephen Mitchelmore. A longlist of 15 to 20 titles will be announced in October 2008 followed by a shortlist of six titles in January 2009. The winner will be announced in February 2009 in Warwick.

The winning submission will represent an intellectual, scientific and/or imaginative advance and be written with an energy and clarity that make it accessible and attractive to a wide audience.

David Morley, Director of the University of Warwick's Warwick Prize for Writing, said: "We are tremendously excited about the Warwick Prize for Writing. The award brilliantly reflects the University's thematic approach to learning and reputation for creative excellence. The prize itself will help define where writing might be going; what new shapes and forms it may take; and even through what media it might be conducted - including electronic forms as well as the traditional form of a book"

The University of Warwick's Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said:

"I am delighted that the University of Warwick is making this major commitment to excellence in writing. This new prize is part of the University's Vision 2015 plan to enhance the University's already significant international links and position it as an intellectual gateway to the UK and beyond. The University's Warwick Writing programme is already one of the largest and most successful in the UK and this substantial new prize will help it build its international profile in the world of literature and creative writing. "

In addition to the £50,000 monetary prize, the winning author will be awarded the opportunity to take up a short placement at the University.

To find out more visit www.warwick.ac.uk/go/prizeforwriting

[Stewart]

China Miéville, award- winning writer of what he describes as 'weird fiction', will chair the panel of five judges. Other judges include mathematician Professor Ian Stewart and literary blogger Stephen Mitchelmore.

I can't say I'm a fan of China Miéville, having forced my way through all 867 pages of his Perdido Street Station. (It had cactus people...yes, cactus people!)

Stephen Mitchelmore blogs at This Space.

And Eric, if you're reading, you'll like this rule:

Submissions may be translations of a work first published in another language. If so, the submission must be the first English translation and must have appeared for the first time within the stated prize period. The prize for such a work will be divided between the original author and the translator in the ratio 70:30.

[Eric]

Wouldn't mind £50,000. I'd keep £40,000 and establish a more modest prize worth £10,000 so people would suck up to me for the money.

All members of the University of Warwick Staff - from nursery staff and gardeners to professors and porters - are invited to make a nomination for a prize entry by August. Warwick's honorary professors and honorary graduates will also be asked to make nominations.

Isn't this just a teensy-weensy bit Victorian...? Because there appears to be one category for the working classes (professors do work, you know), plus one for the worthies: the honorary professors and graduates.

I could do better things with £50,000 than build a gazebo.

Equal opportunism all round, is what I say.

[Mirabell]

If I am not mistaken Michael Hulse is professor at Warwick, a good poet and very accomplished translator. Strange that he isn't on the panel.

[Eric]

Yes, Hulse is, among other things, a Sebald translator. As it happens, I saw four of Sebald's books in a recent Dutch translation in Hilversum the other day, and was pleased to note that the same woman has done all four. This is important for continuity and consistency of style.

Perhaps the Warwick brigade had filled the quota for translators and poets on the panel and, as Britain demands positive discrimination, they needed a nursery nurse and a gardener...

[Mirabell]

Have you met Hulse?

He's such a nice guy.

[Eric]

Never met him, but judging by what you read on the net, his specs are a bit wonky.

I have been to Coventry Polytechnic (aka Warwick University) though. I remember meeting a very nice Icelandic girl there.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Eric

Never met him, but judging by what you read on the net, his specs are a bit wonky.

Explanations? which specs? sorry, my english...

[Eric]

The internet, if used properly, tells you lots of things. Like Hulse's reputation for glasses / spectacles that are a bit wobbly.

As for Coventry Poly, it's nation-famous right now because that's were the post-Glasgow-East members of New Labour are congregating.

I'm sure there are at least eight British novelists writing novels about Gordon Brown (whoever that is) and Blair, Eric, Tony, whatever.