Starburst Magazine is taking submissions for its 2019 Brave New Words books prize through February 16.

The Brave New Words Award is for “someone who produces break-out literature that is new and bold,” say the organizers. “We are looking to highlight exciting work that breaks new ground in the field of Cult Entertainment.”

Editors, writers, publishers, and bloggers can be nominated. Works produced in the UK (or online) in 2018 are eligible. A shortlist will be announced early 2019.

The Award ceremony will be at Edge Lit,the UK’s premiere indie book event. Edge Lit is an annual UK based genre event. It will be held at the Derby Quad, UK, on July 13, 2019. Guest of honour is Tim Lebbon.

Last year’s award winner was Margrét Helgadóttir for her work as editor of Pacific Monsters, published by Fox Spirit Books.  Pacific Monsters brought together genre voices from that region of the world into one volume.

The panel of judges include genre critics and media professionals. The head judge is Starburst Magazine’s Literary Editor, Ed Fortune.

There is no submission fee for the Brave New Words award, nor is there a limit on the number of titles that can be submitted.

The guidelines remind entrants —

Please bear in in mind that STARBURST is a magazine grounded in the field of Cult Entertainment and we are always highlighting indie and cutting-edge media.

The award goes to an individual, not a specific work, so we are looking for examples that most define the creators output.  We want full works: a complete novel or anthology or an example of the writer’s essays. For editors, we are looking specifically at works the editor has curated. We will require one copy of the work in physical or electronic form. If the work makes it to the shortlist, we may require an up to five additional copies. We prefer electronic submissions in all cases.

The email address is [email protected] (marked BNW Awards) and the address to send physical publications is: BRAVE NEW WORDS AWARD SUBMISSIONS c/o STARBURST Magazine, P.O. Box 4508, Manchester, M61 0GY, U.K.

Physical submissions must be clearly marked as intended for the award – mark the package and include a note with each copy.