The Barbellion Prize founder, Jake Goldsmith © Ellen Goldsmith
The Barbellion Prize is a guide prize devoted to the furtherance of sick and disabled voices in writing. The prize is awarded yearly to an creator whose work has greatest represented the expertise of persistent sickness and/or incapacity.
The awarded work might be of any style: in fiction, memoir, biography, poetry or vital non-fiction from world wide, whether or not in English or in translation, historically revealed or self-published.
The prize is called in tribute to English diarist W N P Barbellion, who wrote eloquently on his life with a number of sclerosis (MS) earlier than his dying in 1919.
Writing is an excellent method for sick and disabled individuals to make some sense of what they expertise. But the historical past of incapacity literature, or the general public consciousness of sickness, impairment and illness, remains to be comparatively restricted. As such, The Barbellion Prize was created to espouse the existence of sick and disabled writers, and to reward authors for his or her good work and efforts.
Earlier winners embrace What Willow Says by Lynn Buckle and Golem Woman by Riva Lehrer. Submissions for the 2022 Barbellion Prize at the moment are open till thirty first October 2022.
For additional data and to submit work, readers can go to www.thebarbellionprize.com.
Penny Batchelor, co-founder of the ADCI Literary Prize © Chris Jenkins
When Clare Christian, the writer of Penny Batchelor’s first novel My Excellent Sister, requested if Batchelor wish to staff up along with her to co-found a literary prize for disabled and chronically sick authors, she jumped on the probability.
“It’s a topic near my coronary heart,” mentioned Batchelor (above). “I not often got here throughout anybody like me in books and after I did they both had been magically cured or died to supply the novel’s pathos. After quite a lot of exhausting work, Clare and I secured sponsors and had been delighted to staff up with the Society of Authors. We introduced the ADCI Literary Prize in June 2022, with ADCI standing for Authors with Disabilities and Continual Diseases.”
Submissions are open till thirty first October 2022 for grownup novels written by a disabled or chronically creator, which comprise optimistic incapacity illustration of a number of characters. Novels might be both historically or self-published. For full particulars, go to: bit.ly/3STBNup.
The inaugural winner, who will obtain £1,000, will likely be introduced in June 2023 on the Society of Authors Awards.
The Disabled Poets’ Prize founder Jamie Hale © Holly Falconer
The Disabled Poets’ Prize is open for submissions (till October thirty first) to deaf and disabled writers. It has three classes—Greatest Poem, Greatest Unpublished Pamphlet and Greatest Poem Carried out in British Signal Language—with every class providing awards of £500, £250, £100 and £50 (three submissions obtain the final sum) in addition to skilled growth alternatives.
It was arrange by Jerwood Poetry fellow Jamie Hale with help from companions Unfold the Phrase, Verve Poetry Press and Competition and CRIPtic Arts, in response to a scarcity of alternatives curated to help, encourage and profile deaf and disabled writers. Hale wrote that “as a disabled poet, so many alternatives to entry the offline poetry world have been closed to me. These awards had been set as much as shine a light-weight on the wonderful work being produced by deaf and disabled poets as we speak.”
Hale will likely be judging the Greatest Poem and Greatest Unpublished Pamphlet classes, whereas D L Williams and Sahera Khan are collectively judging the Greatest Poem Carried out in British Signal Language class. The Greatest Pamphlet will likely be revealed by Verve Poetry Press.
These desirous about getting into can discover additional data at www.disabledpoetsprize.org.uk; entrants could submit as soon as per class. Entries are free, however donations are inspired to be able to help the prize this 12 months and ongoing into subsequent 12 months.
Elle McNicoll, founding father of The Adrien Prize © Aashfaria A. Anwar
“Guide prizes have been slashed and youngsters’s literary prizes have been butchered,” says creator Elle McNicoll. “I really feel no guilt in being hyperbolic as a result of I’m an creator whose profession was made by successful a handful of massive prizes, certainly one of which is now gone.
“When the information of my beloved Blue Peter Guide Award’s demise broke, I made a decision to do one thing. I might begin my very own prize. One thing small and modest, we nonetheless don’t have a brand. However there’s a twist. My prize, The Adrien Prize, will solely reward authors with disabled protagonists. No cures allowed, no unrelenting trauma narratives. Thorough, genuine illustration solely.
“The rules: a historically revealed kids’s guide, for any age—that should characteristic a disabled lead. The deadline is Halloween, and entries will need to have been revealed between July 2021 and July 2022. Kids will vote for the ultimate winner.” events can enter by contacting [email protected].
“The goal is to reward and encourage good depictions of incapacity in kids’s fiction. Each guide I’ve written stars a disabled lead. I’ve accomplished the work. Now I wish to empower others and remind the business that we’re a lot a couple of single story. I’m particularly enthusiastic about incapacity in style [fiction]… Good luck!”
