Industry Notes: A Worldwide Competition in 'New Media Writing'

The UK-based New Media Writing Competition opens its seventh year of international entries and access to the UK-based competition is worldwide, open to all.

Image: From ‘High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese,’ an interactive poem which won the 2015 New Media Writing Prize main award

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

For ‘Writers Working With Digital Media’

As reported at The Writing Platform, Bournemouth University and If:Book UK have opened their seventh annual New Media Writing Prize to worldwide entries in English.

There are several categories:

Main Prize: £1,000 (US$1,298) donated by If:Book UK;
Student Prize: Three months’ paid internship at Unicorn Training, Bournemouth, working with Unicorn’s writing and design team;
The Dot Award: £500 (US$649) to get a new project started. Donated by If:Book UK;
The Gorkana Journalism Award, donated by Gorkana, a media services company, with two awards, a UK award and an international award. Each pays £500 (US$649) to the winner.

The entry deadline for all awards except the Student Prize is noon GMT on November 30.

The entry deadline for the Student Prize is noon GMT on December 16.

A work by Shaun Hickman called ‘Kindred’ won the New Media Writing Prize student award in 2015

In the Main and Student categories, the prize’s information says the program looks for “good storytelling (fiction or nonfiction) written specifically for delivery and reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, the Web, or a hand-held device such as an iPad or mobile phone. It could be a short story, novel, poem, documentary or transmedia work using words, images, film or animation with audience interaction. Interactivity is a key element of new-media storytelling.”

In particular, the jury is to watch for: “Innovative use of new (digital) media/transmedia to create an engaging, satisfying narrative, or poem, or as-yet-unspecified form…Ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer. Effective use of interactive elements. A great example of how new media can do things traditional media can’t. The potential to reach out to a wide audience (i.e. not just specialist interest groups).”

In the case of the Dot Award, the material says, “we are looking for projects which aren’t necessarily technically complex but do create original and exciting literary work inspired by the affordances of the web, blogs, apps, social media etc.”

And the Gorkana Journalism Awards, making their debut this year, are meant to attract “innovative stories based on factual material and featuring digital media. Interactive documentaries, multimedia features and serious games are all considered. Entries must incorporate new media technologies and platforms.”

Shortlisted entrants are to be invited to an awards ceremony at Bournemouth University on January 18.

For complete information—including a helpful section called “What We’re NOT Looking For,” see this page.

Image: From ‘High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese,’ an interactive poem which won the 2015 New Media Writing Prize main award

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's 2019 International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson also has worked as a senior producer, editor, and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA, and as an arts critic (National Critics Institute) with The Village Voice and Dallas Times Herald. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.