ENTRIES FOR 2024’S ISLE OF WIGHT BOOK AWARDS NOW OPEN

Applications for this year’s Isle Of Wight Book Awards are now open. There are 3 categories, with the awards’ founder Hunter Davies judging the fiction books, Alan Titchmarsh will this year be judging the non-fiction entries, and this year they are joined by children’s judge Anne McNeil whose 40-year career has seen her working as editor and agent for an impressive list of some the country’s most popular authors of children’s fiction. The winner of each category will receive a £200 prize with an additional £500 awarded to the overall winner of the Book Of The Year Award. 3 distinguished local sponsors are generously contributing to the lunch and the prize money: Hovertravel, The Isle of Wight Music Festival, and private benefactors David and Patsy Franks, plus help and support from the Medina Bookshop in Cowes and Monkton Arts in Ryde. The awards are timed to coincide with the annual Isle of Wight Literary Festival with the prize-giving lunch being held on 1st October at the Island Sailing Club marking the the festival’s opening. Entries are open now until 131st May and it is free to enter for anyone who has been published (self-published or professionally released) during 2023. The only conditions are that the book must have a physical form (no digital only publications) and that there has to be some element of Isle of Wight content. To enter, just fill in the entry form on the Book Awards website, then drop in 4 copies of your finished publication to 1 of 4 drop-off points: Medina bookshop in Cowes, Monkton Arts in Ryde, Mrs Middleton’s Bookshop in Freshwater or Babushka Books in Shanklin. Entry is free. For full details of the rules, details of the awards and entry forms, visit www.iowbookawards.co.uk