By IW Observer.co.uk
More than 60 books have already been entered for the first ever Isle of Wight Book Awards which the three judges – Alan Titchmarsh, Joanna Trollope and Hunter Davies – consider an amazing achievement for the Island’s first ever such awards.
“It is three times the number we expected. Has Covid helped?” suggested Hunter Davies. “During all the horrible, boring, dreary lockdowns perhaps folks on the Island have been sitting at home going scribble, scribble, scribble…?”
The entry deadline is coming soon, on March 5, with short-lists for the three categories (non-fiction, fiction and children’s books) made public on August 5. The winners will be announced at a Grand Literary Lunch on the Island in September to which the public will be invited. The date and venue are yet to be announced.
The authors need not live on the Island and can be alive or dead or somewhere in between, but each book entered must have some sort of content connected with the Island.
For this first year of the awards, books published in the last five years can also be entered; so dig out your own masterpiece, or contact anyone you know who has published a local book recently. In future, the annual awards will be restricted to books published in the previous year. Self-published books are not only allowed, they are actively encouraged, as one of the aims of the awards is to help people who have never written a book before to write about themselves, their lives, their interests or the Island. Any subject goes, as long as there is an Isle of Wight link.
All you have to do to enter is fill in the entry form available on the website, and drop in three copies of your book to Medina Bookshop in Cowes. Entry is free.
Judge, Hunter Davies, believes, “Everyone has a book in them.” He has so far published 102!
For full details of the rules, the awards and entry forms, please visit iowbookawards.co.uk.
Isle of Wight Observer