Announcement
The Desmond Elliott Prize is now the flagship award in the National Centre for Writing’s portfolio of Early Career Awards, launched in 2019 to support new writers.
This website is maintained as an archive of the first decade of the prize.
All submission enquiries for 2020 should be sent to awards@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk
The closing date for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize is 29/11/19.
Visit the National Centre for Writing website for submission details.
“The UK’s most prestigious award for first-time novelists” — Telegraph
Launched in 2007, The Desmond Elliott Prize has quickly become established as the premier prize for new fiction.
The Desmond Elliott Prize is now the flagship award in the National Centre for Writing’s portfolio of Early Career Awards, launched in 2019 to support new writers.
This website is maintained as an archive of the first decade of the prize.
All submission enquiries for 2020 should be sent to awards@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk
The closing date for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize is 29/11/19.
Visit the National Centre for Writing website for submission details.
Read about the impact of the Desmond Elliott Prize
Every year, a panel of three judges are asked to look for a novel which has a compelling narrative, arresting characters and which is both vividly written and confidently realised. Books from all fiction genres are considered.
Worth £10,000 to the winner, the Prize is intended to support new writers and to celebrate their fiction. It was created in memory of the charismatic publisher and literary agent Desmond Elliott, who died in August 2003. He stipulated that his estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award “to enrich the careers of new writers”.
