New award category launched for unpublished British writers

Press release dated June 1st, 2010:

Sony UK today announces its sponsorship of a newly created category in this year's Dylan Thomas Prize – the Sony Reader Award for Unpublished Writers.

The Dylan Thomas Prize is the world's largest literary award for young writers. The prize was established to recognise the international work of Dylan Thomas, whose first book of poetry was published when he was just 21, and it supports the work of newly published authors.

The new Sony Reader Award category has been created specifically to support unpublished British novel writers under the age of 30 using electronic book formats for the entire process, from submission of the entries through to judging and then publication. The winner will receive a cash prize of £5,000, and their book will be published in eBook format and made available for download from the Sony UK website in time for the Christmas season.

eBook entries will need to be submitted in PDF, Word or EPUB format via the Reader website at www.sony.co.uk/hub/1237478694346/ between July 1st and August 31st, and the shortlisted writers will be notified in September. The winner of the award will be announced at the Dylan Thomas Prize Award Ceremony on 1st December 2010.

Omar Gurnah, Reader category marketing manager for Sony, said: "Being involved in the Dylan Thomas Prize this year is an ideal partnership for Reader. We wanted to take the Dylan Thomas Prize's ethos of working with young authors a step further by creating a new category to offer Britain's unpublished writers a unique platform on which to showcase their novel-writing talents."

Peter Stead, the Dylan Thomas Prize founder and judge, said: "'At the Dylan Thomas Prize we were delighted to learn of Sony's interest in promoting new writing by unpublished authors and we are greatly honoured that we have been asked to play a part in organising the Sony Reader Award. Our commitment has always been to new writing, and this new prize forms a landmark for aspiring authors and mark an exciting departure for the Dylan Thomas Prize."

Guidelines for writers:

The Sony Reader Award for Unpublished Writers has the following entry requirements:
• Entrants must be under 30 years old
• Entrants must be resident in the UK
• Entrants can submit only novels (no poetry, plays, etc.)
• Entrants must be previously unpublished
• The minimum word count for entries is 80,000

Submissions are submitted online via the Sony Reader Award site: www.sony.co.uk/hub/1237478694346/

For more information, please contact:

Taylor Glenn
Communications Liaison
Dylan Thomas Prize Ltd.
info@dylanthomasprize.com
+44 (0) 1792 474051