Entries for the 10th anniversary SI Leeds Literary Prize will be accepted from 18 April – 2 May 2022.
The Award is open to published and unpublished women writers, over the age of 18, of Black or Asian descent who are resident in the UK. This includes writers who identify as women or womxn. Ethnicity will be self-defined by entrants. As a guideline, Black or Asian descent in the context of the Award signifies any Black background, including:
- Black African
- Black Caribbean
- any other Black background
any Asian background, including:
- Bangladeshi
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Thai
- Malay
- Philippine
- Vietnamese
- Chinese
- Japanese
- countries in the Middle East
- any other Asian background
any mixed background, including
- Asian and White
- Black and White
- Any other background from more than one ethnic group.
The Award is open to unpublished novels and/or collections of short stories of any genre of no less than 30,000 words. Manuscripts that have been previously published will not be eligible. However, whilst the main body of the novel or collection of short stories should comprise unpublished work, submissions will be accepted where no more than 25% of the work has been previously published. Manuscripts currently available for sale online, either in full or in significant proportion (i.e. more than 50% of the total manuscript) will be ineligible. Manuscripts either partially or wholly available online for no charge will be eligible.
Memoirs, biographies and autobiographies are not eligible.
Entries must be in English.
Full terms and conditions of the prize are available here.
