Brit Writers – Celebrating the Creative Passion of the Nation

The Brit Writers Awards may have only been established in 2009, but they’ve quickly found themselves as the frontrunner in the UK’s creative writing platform. The organisation is an exciting initiative to encourage and inspire unpublished and self-published writers of all ages and this year, representatives from the publishing world along with celebrities, dignitaries and the international media gathered at Madame Tussauds to celebrate the very best that the UK has to offer in creative writing talent.

For their inaugural Awards ceremony last July, over 21,000 unpublished British writers from 92 countries across the globe entered the competition. The people behind the organisation vowed to continue supporting the literary world in whatever ways they could and just 12 months later, they announced a UK network of 2 million people on board. The organisation has received praise from the highest of authorities, including the Prime Minister David Cameron:
“I am delighted to send my best wishes to everyone participating in these Awards. Writing is a great way to display creativity and express thoughts and feelings, and there are few better ways to broaden horizons than to read other people’s work.”

Brit Writers is the brainchild of Imran Akram, whose vision to ‘make writing cool’ and to make the world of publishing more accessible to new writers tells us:
“Brit Writers is about harnessing the support of every sector of society to encourage creative writing, raise literacy and discover new writing stars. We support budding authors, giving them the skills and confidence to make their writing dreams a reality. Our approach is being proven by the phenomenal success of authors on our publishing programme and Catherine Cooper, last year’s winner who is not only a bestselling author now but also has a movie in the making! We’re hugely excited about Georgina Kirk’s book, a fun, engaging and rhythmic story. Just the kind of book that kids love to read, or have read to them by parents.”

Although the Awards are an integral part of recognising writing talent in the UK, it is only a small section of the work that Brit Writers do. The organisation is broken down into the distinct areas of schools & communities, businesses, services for writers, an exciting new magazine called Write Now! and of course the annual event of the Brit Writers Awards.

In schools, the Brit Writers act as a springboard to trigger a revival of love for creative writing. To date, over 1.8 million school children are involved in their creative writing programme and Brit Writers provide downloadable lesson plans, writing resources and ideas for teachers to keep the subject interesting and bring it all to life. It’s attracted much support from the business world, many of whom have come on board as Schools Territory Partners to sponsor schools so they can access these resources for free.

Media company Industry Insiders sponsors every school in Cheshire to access the materials. Owner Rachel Johnson says it was an easy decision to come on board:
“After seeing what Brit Writers were doing in schools across the UK, I immediately wanted to support the scheme. Inspiring and motivating young people is at the very heart of everything we do at Industry Insiders and we’re delighted that we’ve been able to help thousands of young people across Cheshire learn the delights of creative writing.”

Brit Writers are now open for submissions for the 2012 awards. Finalists are made up from adult’s and children’s categories. In the adult’s section, the categories are novels, short stories, stage and screenplays, non-fiction, song writing, stories for children and poetry. In the children’s category, finalists were chosen in short stories, poetry and songwriting. Literary legend Sir Terry Pratchett also lends his support:
“I do think that the Brit Writers Awards out there as a beacon is a good thing; it is a lonely world when you are a wannabe writer.”

The Awards at Madame Tussauds in London on Friday 7th October honoured the creative writing world’s talents, accumulating in the crowning of the Unpublished Writer of the Year, Georgina Kirk with her book, Once Upon a Princess a Very Hairy Beard Did Grow who won £10,000 and a publishing deal for her winning words.

Full list of winners is as follows:

Brit Writers Unpublished Writer of the Year 2011 (overall winner of £10k) – Georgina Kirk of Manchester with her Children’s book, Once Upon a Princess a very Hairy Beard Did Grow

Under 16’s Category winners
• Short Stories: Emma Welton, Broken Syllables
• Poetry: Orianne Breakspear, Mysterious
• Songwriting: Theo Breakspear, Life

Adult category winners
• Songwriting: Vicky Clarke, Don’t Go
• Stories for Children: Georgina Kirk, Once Upon a Princess a very Hairy Beard Did Grow
• Stage & screenplay: Chris Bush, The Impossibility of Apple Trees
• Short Stories: Pamela Pottinger: Howling at the Moon
• Poetry: Wayne Price, The Weather at the End of the News
• Non-fiction: Lynne Copp
• International Writer: Thomas Gommersall (from Hong Kong)
• Published Writer of the Year: Max Malik, The Butterfly Hunter

Last year’s winner of the prestigious Unpublished Writer of the Year Award went to former teacher Catherine Cooper. The former teacher from Shropshire won £10,000 and a publishing deal for her children’s novel, The Golden Acorn.

Last year’s event was held at the 02 in London on 15th July and nine previously unpublished authors won prizes.