One of the special things about the SI Leeds Literary Prize is our wonderful team of volunteer readers, who choose their favourite from our shortlist of six manuscripts to win the SI Readers’ Choice Award.
And with judging for the main prize now underway, we’re looking for volunteers to join our SI Readers’ Choice Award team and help select the 2024 winner.
The prize is awarded to unpublished fiction written by UK-based Black and Asian women and has been running since 2012. Our 2022 SI Readers’ Choice winner, Dr Laura Fish, will see her award-winning novel, Lying Perfectly Still, published this autumn by Fly on the Wall Press.
This additional award is seen by the industry as a valuable indication of the views of readers, rather than professional judges, and feedback by readers is extremely valuable to the shortlisted writers, whose unpublished manuscripts may not have been read by many people.
What is involved?
Participating readers will be emailed the six shortlisted manuscripts in early September and will be asked to vote for their preferred choice by late October. As manuscripts are unpublished, all reading happens electronically, either via a Kindle, tablet or computer. This means a lot of reading but you don’t need to read each manuscript from start to finish. The SI Readers’ Choice Award is there to reward the book that most engaged you.
How to sign up
If you would like to join our readers, please email us at audience@sileedsliteraryprize.com by Friday 30 August 2024 and we will be in touch with details.
