The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award 2011
Frances Lincoln Limited, the award-winning publisher, and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books, are proud to announce the third Diverse Voices Award in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945 - 2001), to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction.
The Award
Entry Forms
Frances Lincoln
Contact
Previous Winners
The Award
The purpose of The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award is to:
• Take positive steps to increase the representation of people writing from or about different cultural perspectives, whose work is published in Britain today.
• Promote new writing for children, especially by or about people whose culture and voice are currently under-represented.
• Recognise that as children’s books shape our earliest perceptions of the world and its cultures, promoting writing that represents diversity will contribute to social and cultural tolerance.
• Support the process of writing rather than, as with the majority of prizes, promoting the publication.
The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award is for a manuscript that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or in terms of the ethnic and cultural origins of its author. The prize of £1,500, plus the option for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish the novel, will be awarded to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8–to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 16 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children. The writer may have contributed to an anthology of prose or poetry. The work must be written in English and it must be a minimum of 15,000 words and a maximum of 35,000 words. Previously submitted manuscripts which were not short-listed will be considered for entry.
The closing date for all entries is Friday 25th February 2011. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony in June 2011.
The distinguished panel of judges includes:
• Trevor Phillips - Chair of The Equality and Human Rights Commission
• Jake Hope – Children’s Librarian for Lancashire Libraries, and a freelance consultant
• Geraldine Brennan – Journalist and former Books Editor at the Times Educational Supplement
• Janetta Otter-Barry – Janetta Otter-Barry Books at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
• Mary Briggs - Co-Founder of Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books
The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award is supported by Frances Lincoln Limited and Arts & Business.
Entry Forms
Diverse Voices Award Criteria form
Diverse Voices Award 2011 entry form
Diverse Voices Award 2011 optional monitoring form
Contact
Alternatively, contact the Award Co-ordinator, Helena McConnell by email
E: diversevoices@sevenstories.org.uk helena@sevenstories.org.uk
Press enquiries to: Nicky Potter E: nicpot@dircon.co.uk
Frances Lincoln
Frances Lincoln Limited was founded by Frances Lincoln in 1977. In 1983 the company started to publish illustrated books for children. Since then it has won many awards and prizes with both fiction and non-fiction children’s books. Best-selling titles include Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman with illustrations by Caroline Binch and We are Britain by Benjamin Zephaniah with photographs by Prodeepta Das.
Frances Lincoln died, aged 55, in February 2001. She was described by Julia Eccleshare in the TES as “the publisher best known for pioneering multicultural books for children.” Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate, commented that, “ Publishing has lost a brave and innovative person who has left behind her, much too soon, a thriving legacy.”
Frances’s husband, John Nicoll, now runs the company. Frances Lincoln publish well over 100 new books a year, and have nearly 1000 in print. Their turnover is around £7 million per annum and they employ about 40 people. For more information go to www.franceslincoln.com
Previous Winners
Too Much Trouble by Tom Avery, a teacher working in a culturally diverse inner city school, has won the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award 2010, a story the judges described as ‘an Oliver Twist of our times’. The contemporary adventure story is a dramatic page-turner about Emmanuel and Prince, two brothers who fall in with a gang of pickpockets when their family abandons them. Fast paced and full of tension, it explores big issues such as illegal immigration, what makes a family and the ethical dilemmas surrounding crimes committed for survival.
The judges looked for a strong story that an 8-12 year old would want to read rather than a worthy book that overtly explores social issues. The decision to give the Award to Too Much Trouble was unanimous with the judges commenting:
“The author has set out to create an Oliver Twist of our times and has pulled it off. The gritty reality is important with such serious subjects but Avery is very adept at writing and does what fiction is meant to do. He takes reality and heightens it but not to the point where it loses credibility.”
Tom won prize money of £1,500 and is now working with Janetta Otter-Barry who has started her own children’s book list at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. Accepting the Award, Tom said:
“I am delighted to have won this Award and thrilled that Too Much Trouble has been so well received. I wrote it when I heard the story of a boy and his sisters who had been sent to live in England without their parents. I couldn’t stop thinking about what that responsibility must be like. In the end I had to put the story down on paper.”
To view last year's award ceremony click here. The film will open in You Tube and is approximately 10 minutes long.
Follow Tom’s progress as he works with Janetta Otter-Barry to bring his story to publication: www.toomuchavery.wordpress.com
The celebration at Seven Stories also launched the publication of Cristy Burne’s Takeshita Demons, winner of the inaugural Award and the first in a trilogy. This exciting adventure story about a Japanese schoolgirl who confronts the demons from her grandmother’s tales has a page feature in Booktrust’s Children’s Book Week pack and has also been selected for the 2010 Booked Up list. Takeshita Demons is available in the Seven Stories bookshop price £5.99.
Cristy celebrated the success of her first book with her family in Perth, Western Australia where she now lives. Continue to follow her adventures at http://cristyburne.wordpress.com
