Check out our latest magazine... Read Online

Entries Fly In For First Ever Isle of Wight Book Awards

Friday, 4 February 2022 14:13

By Amy Shephard X @words_by_amy

More than 60 books have now been entered for the first ever Isle of Wight Book Awards.

The award's three distinguished judges — Alan Titchmarsh, Joanna Trollope and Hunter Davies — consider this an amazing achievement for the Island's first ever event of its type.

British author, journalist and broadcaster, Hunter Davies, who is best known for his authorised biography of The Beatles, said:

“It is three times the number we expected. Has Covid helped?”

“During all the horrible, boring, dreary lockdowns perhaps folks on the Island have been sitting at home going scribble, scribble, scribble…?”

The deadline for entries is March 5 and entry forms are available at www.iowbookawards.co.uk.  

The shortlists will be announced on August 5 and the winners will be announced at a grand literary lunch on the Island in September — exact date and venue to be announced —  to which the public are invited. 

There will be three categories of awards: non-fiction, fiction and children’s books.

Three local sponsors are generously contributing to the lunch and the prize money: Hovertravel, Isle of Wight Festival and Hose Rhodes Dickson, plus help and support from Medina Bookshop in Cowes and Monkton Arts in Ryde. 

The authors need not live on the Island, can be alive or dead or middling but each book entered must have some sort of content connected with the Island.

For the first year of the awards, books published in the last five years can also be entered; so dig them out or contact those you might know who have published any local books recently. In future, the annual awards will be restricted to books published in the previous year.

Self published books are actively encouraged.

Drop in three copies of your finished masterpiece to Medina Bookshop in Cowes. Entry is free.   

"Everyone has a book in them,"  says Hunter Davies. He has so far published 102.   

For full details of the rules, details of the awards and entry forms, visit: www.iowbookawards.co.uk

Share

More from Features

Get Social

© Beacon Magazine Isle of Wight and Aiir 2024 | 8-10 Dodnor Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5XE