Starburst Magazine is taking submissions for the Brave New Words books prize works produced in 2019. The award ceremony will be at Edge Lit 9, the UK’s premiere indie book event.

In addition, Starburst has announced a second award, for special contributions to the genre literature community. The details of this separate award will be released later this month.

Edge Lit is an annual UK based genre event. It will be held at the Derby Quad, UK,  July 11-12. Guests include John Gwynne and David Quanitick.

Now in its third year, The Brave New Words Award is for someone who produces break-out literature that is new and bold. They are looking to highlight “exciting work that breaks new ground in the field of Cult Entertainment.”  Editors, writers, publishers, and bloggers can be nominated. A shortlist will be announced early 2020 and the winner will be announced in special ceremony at Edge Lit.

Previous winners include Tasha Suri, for her ground breaking novel Empire of Sand. In 2018, Margrét Helgadóttir won for her work as editor of Pacific Monsters, published by Fox Spirit Books. 

The panel of judges includes genre critics and media professionals. The head judge is Starburst Magazine’s Literary Editor, Ed Fortune. The judges are Urban Fantasy author Russell Smith,  media expert Rebecca Derrick , book podcaster Jane Hamner and book blogger Matt Cavanagh.

Nominations must be submitted by March 12, 2020. The guidelines for submitting to the long list are below.

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.

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 work must have been published in the UK (or online) during 2019.

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
PO Box 4508
Manchester
M61 0GY

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

[Based on a press release.]