The Bath Children’s Novel Award invites submissions of books for children or teenagers from unaccented, and unpublished or self-published authors worldwide.

Deadline: 30th November 2024
Prize: £5,000, plus the coveted Minerva trophy, based on the famous sculpture in Bath’s Roman Baths.
Entry fee: £29.99 per manuscript with sponsored places available for low income writers.

Initial submissions are up to the first 5,000 words plus one page synopsis of novel or chapter book manuscripts for children, novels for teens, or up to three entire picture book texts with summaries.

Longlisted submissions are whittled down to a shortlist chosen by Junior Judges aged seven to seventeen years. 2024’s winning manuscript will be judged by literary agent Enrichetta Frezzato of Curtis Brown.

Shortlisted authors receive a compilation of Junior Judges’ comments on their full manuscript. All shortlisted authors win feedback worth £180 on their opening pages from an editorial director at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.

The writer of the most promising longlisted novel will  win a place worth £1,980 on the 18-week virtual course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy.

The winner will be announced in February 2025.

Previous winners include Struan Murray for the manuscript of Orphans of the Tide (published by Puffin in 2020), Lucy Van Smit for The Hurting (Chickenhouse, 2018) and Matthew Fox for The Sky Over Rebecca (Hachette, 2022).

Find full details and enter here: https://bathnovelaward.co.uk/childrens-novel-award/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.