A £10,000 literary prize

A £10,000 literary prize rewarding boldly original fiction has been launched by Goldsmiths, University of London in association with the New Statesman.

The Goldsmiths Prize has been established to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the College and to recognise published fiction that opens up new possibilities for the novel form. The annual prize will be awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best.

Jonathan Derbyshire, Culture Editor of the New Statesman, commented: "The New Statesman is delighted to be supporting a prize that rewards invention and innovation in fiction - qualities that the magazine has long promoted in its literary pages. We are especially pleased to be entering into partnership with an institution as forward-looking as Goldsmiths."

The prize will be officially announced today (Wednesday) at a reading by Booker Prize-winning novelist James Kelman, part of a series of author talks organised by the new Writers' Centre at Goldsmiths.

Blake Morrison, poet, author and Professor of Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths, commented: "A number of innovative and prize-winning young novelists and poets have emerged from our creative writing programme, and the inauguration of the Writers' Centre is a recognition that writing at Goldsmiths has an increasingly high profile. As to the new Prize, we hope it will encourage more risk-taking among novelists, editors and agents alike. There's an idea that innovative and genre-busting books are bound to be inaccessible. We don't believe that's the case."

Designed to provide a platform for debate about the novel and the directions it should or should not take, events at the new Writers' Centre will include readings from critically acclaimed contemporary writers and will bring together the judges, authors shortlisted for the prize, and literary enthusiasts.

Dr Tim Parnell, Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literature, explained: "Serious discussion of the art of fiction is too often confined to the pages of learned journals and we hope the prize and the events surrounding it will stimulate a much wider debate about the novel."

Publishers are invited to submit their entries from Friday 25 January 2013 to Friday 22 March 2013. The Prize is open to novels published in 2013 and there is no limit to the number of titles that may be entered by a publisher or bona fide imprint, provided the works entered meet all other entry requirements.

The entries will be judged by an expert panel consisting of British novelists Nicola Barker and Gabriel Josipovici, Culture Editor of the New Statesman, Jonathan Derbyshire, and Goldsmiths' Dr Tim Parnell.

For more details, terms and conditions, or to download The Goldsmiths Prize submission form, click here.

Source: Goldsmiths, University of London