Manchester Writing Competition Gala Prize-giving Ceremony at Man Met

It’s our favourite time of the year! The glittering gala prize-giving ceremony celebrating and awarding the Manchester Writing Competition is back, including the announcement of the 2021 Poetry and Fiction Prize winners.

At this event, two £10,000 prizes will be handed out: the Manchester Poetry Prize for best portfolio of poems and the Manchester Fiction Prize for best short story.

Established in 2008 by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and head of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Manchester Writing Competition is open to writers around the globe, celebrating Manchester as an international city of writers, finding diverse new voices and creating opportunities for writer development. Since launching, one of the UK’s biggest literary prizes for unpublished work has awarded more than £200,000 to writers and, at this event, two £10,000 prizes will be handed out: the Manchester Poetry Prize for best portfolio of poems and the Manchester Fiction Prize for best short story.

Join the judges for a drinks reception at 7pm, and take your seats at 7.30pm – this year, you’re invited to their new gaff, Man Met’s new Grosvenor East Arts & Humanities Building, just off All Saints Park and home to the shiny new Manchester Poetry Library.

In the poetry corner, we have a previous Manchester Poetry Prize-winner Romalyn Ante along with Manchester Metropolitan University creative writing lecturer Malika Booker and Faber-published Zaffar Kunial; representing fiction, give it up for Hilaire (whose short stories have appeared in magazines including Under The Radar as well as the Best British Short Stories 2021 anthology), short fiction writer, novelist and essayist Simon Okotie, and Nicholas Royle, Reader in Creative Writing in the Manchester Writing School and chair of the judging panel for the Manchester Fiction Prize since 2009.

The writers who have made it onto the shortlist are, for Fiction, Danny Beusch, Shelley Hastings, Sarah Hegarty, Leone Ross, Nicholas Ruddock and Naomi Wood, and, for poetry, Courtney Conrad, Laura Paul Watson, Peter Ramm, Alyza Taguilaso, Jane Wilkinson and April Yee. The short-listed pieces are available to read on the competition website, so you can start deciding who you’re going to be rooting for! The night will include short readings from each of the poetry and fiction finalists, followed by the announcement of the winners and the presentation of those all-important golden envelopes.