9 August 2021
The Volcano Prize will award £2,000 for a novel focusing on the experience of travel away from home.
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The 2022 Society of Authors’ Awards are now open for entries, with seven prizes spanning fiction, poetry, non-fiction and illustrated children’s books – and introducing a new prize for next year, the Volcano Prize.
Inspired by Malcolm Lowry’s novel, Under the Volcano, and in celebration of its author, the Volcano Prize aims to inspire literary excellence and encourage writers to travel and to write from the resulting experience. The prize is open to Irish and UK writers or a writer living in those countries.
The prize will be awarded as part of the SoA Awards, the UK’s biggest literary prize fund, alongside the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, the Betty Trask Prize and Awards, the Eric Gregory Awards, the McKitterick Prize, the Somerset Maugham Awards and the Queen’s Knickers Prize.
This year’s awards celebrated ‘writing as a force to be reckoned with’ in a virtual celebration for the second year running with host Joanne Harris, Chair of the SoA. We shared £105,775 between 35 writers, poets and illustrators as part of the online celebration.
The 2022 ceremony is generously supported by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).
The SoA Awards are free to enter. Read our FAQs here and click on a prize below to find out more.
An annual award of £1,000 for a short story, financed by a bequest made by Miss Nellie Tom-Gallon in memory of her brother and generously supported by ALCS.
Deadline for entries: 31 October 2021
Betty Trask left a bequest to the Society of Authors in 1983 to fund prizes for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 in a traditional or romantic, but not experimental, style.
Deadline for entries: 30 November 2021
The Eric Gregory Awards, for a collection by poets under the age of 30, were founded in 1960 by the late Dr Eric Gregory for the encouragement of young poets.
Deadline for entries: 31 October 2021
The McKitterick Prize is given annually to an author over the age of 40 for a first novel, published or unpublished, and endowed by Tom McKitterick – the former editor of Political Quarterly and author of an unpublished novel.
Deadline for entries: 31 October 2021
W. Somerset Maugham set up a fund in 1947 to enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience of foreign countries. The awards are given for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry.
Deadline for entries: 30 November 2021
The Queen's Knickers Award celebrates the writers and illustrators of original ‘quirky’ illustrated books for children ages 0-7, generously funded by Nicholas Allan, author of The Queen’s Knickers. Submissions must be made by the print publisher.
Deadline for entries: 30 November 2021
Inspired by Malcolm Lowry’s novel, Under the Volcano, and in celebration of its author, the prize aims to inspire literary excellence and encourage writers to travel and to write from the resulting experience.
Deadline for entries: 31 October 2021
Volcano Prize logo art by Annabelle Carvell