Further details to follow soon.
The Prototype Development Programme is a new scheme offering extended support and career development to eight emerging writers and artists, in partnership with New Writing North as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards, and runs alongside the recently established Prototype Prize.
The programme is open to writers and artists who have not yet had a book published, and are at a formative stage in their careers.
The six-month programme will offer remote learning and personal development through a series of group workshops and feedback sessions, alongside a programme of five seminars led by different pairings of curators, writers, publishers, editors, and literary agents, all carried out online, making them widely accessible.
Background
The Prototype Development Programme is funded by Arts Council England, and forms part of a wider project focused on multidisciplinary and hybrid-genre approaches to writing, centred around a new prize in partnership with frieze magazine, which will run adjacent to this programme.
As a publisher committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition, we have first-hand experience of the challenges of supporting writing that sits between traditional publishing categories. While there are a growing number of opportunities and mentoring schemes for poets and novelists, there is a distinct lack of opportunities for writers and artists whose work sits between conventional literary forms, and this scheme aims to fill that gap.
Who is this opportunity for?
We are looking for eight writers and/or artists to take part in a six-month online programme, consisting of seminars and workshops alongside focused editorial work and monthly feedback from two experienced editors.
The programme is funded by Arts Council England and is open to applicants anywhere in the UK. Three of the eight places are ringfenced for writers based in the North of England. We are especially keen to reach writers from underrepresented backgrounds, and we encourage applications from global majority, working-class, disabled, LGBTQ+ and other communities that have been historically underrepresented in UK publishing. We hope to offer an extended and focused period of support to emerging writers who might not have the opportunity to access such creative and career development.
Writers based in the North of England should apply via New Writing North, while writers based elsewhere in the UK should apply via Prototype.
The programme is committed to longevity and sustainability, both in its duration and through the skills and experience it will equip its participants with. New Writing North-selected participants will receive access to their wider network, and every participant will have their work published in issue 6 of the annual PROTOTYPE anthology.
Each participant will be paid a bursary of £500. Writers who submit to the programme are also eligible to submit to the Prototype Prize.
What will you be expected to do?
The main objective of the programme is to offer the expertise of the creative professionals delivering the workshops and editorial sessions, and there is no requirement to produce a specific or defined piece of work at the end of the programme.
You will be asked to submit work as part of the application process, and to bring to the course work that can be shared with the group, and with the editors, which you will edit and develop throughout the programme’s duration.
You will be expected to attend one two-hour seminar each month, and to contribute to online forum discussions, both by sharing your work and commenting on the work of other participants.
You will not be required to travel to any events, but will be invited to attend a launch event (location tbc) either in person or online at the end of the project period.
How to apply
Applications should be made via our online Submittable portal, and will be open from 13 September – 23 October. We want to make sure all candidates can apply so if you have any access requirements please let us know by email to admin@prototypepublishing.co.uk.
All applicants will be asked to submit the following information, via our online form:
- A summary outlining why you are interested in the programme, how you hope to benefit from it, and details of any specific projects you would like to develop throughout the duration of the programme.
- A brief outline of your experience to date. Please note that you do not have to have had any work published or exhibited before.
- A sample of work of up to 20 pages, in PDF format. This may be poetry, fiction, non-fiction or visual work.
- An equal opportunities monitoring form.
