Training
The scheme involves The Literary Consultancy providing a detailed assessment of writers’ literary work to help develop your work.
The Free Read scheme is for low-income, high-quality writers.
Exiled Writers Ink will select writers who we think would benefit from the scheme.
The scheme is open to writers of poetry and prose, including short stories, scripts, screenplays and radio plays.
Writers can submit an extract of their work or the full manuscript across fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, scripts and screenplays.
The Literary Consultancy Free Reads Scheme offers talented, low-income writers the opportunity to apply for bursaried (non-fee paying) access to their valuable commercial services for writers. Established in 1996 as the first service of its kind in the UK, The Literary Consultancy (TLC) offers writers the opportunity to receive an honest, market-aware appraisal of their work through its long-running manuscript assessment service, available for extracts or full manuscripts across fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, scripts and screenplays. TLC has helped a number of writers on to publication, but its main aim is to support writers in developing their work. TLC hand-matches each incoming manuscript to a suitable reader from its list of 80+ professional editors, and writers can expect to receive feedback in the form of a written critique, sent within 4-6 weeks of the application being processed.
If a TLC reader finds that a manuscript is at a very high standard and he or she thinks there may be a potential market for it as well, then we ask the writer to do the necessary revisions and send it to our office where the TLC office will then reassess the manuscript. If TLC finds that they can support a quality manuscript, then they try to place it with an agent. TLC scouts for literary talent, but we never recommend that a writer seek an assessment if their only interest is in being published.
Kindly funded by the Bart Wolffe Legacy Fund to assist struggling refugee and migrant writers. Bart was a talented poet and writer from Zimbabwe.
Competition Judges: Poets: Alev Adil and Michael Zand Ahanchian
image: Houri Ghamian
Exiled Writers Ink presents the free poetry competition for UK refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants
Free Entry
First Prize £400 plus The Literary Consultancy’s free detailed report on the winner’s poetry collection
Second Prize £200 plus a free course at the prestigious Poetry School
Third Prize £100
All prizes: Free membership of Exiled Writers Ink for a year
Special awards event when the winners will recite their poetry
Rules
· The competition is open to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants aged 18 or over and resident in the UK at the time of entering.
· The closing date of the competition is midnight 15th December 2017.
· Personal details: full name, address, e-mail address and telephone number and a short paragraph about yourself must be written in the body of the e-mail, not on the poems. The poet’s name must not appear on the poems.
· Use one page for each poem and include the titles. All poems must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length.
· Entries must not have been previously published.
· Entries must be in English and can be in translation.
· Entries are free. Each participant must send 3 poems.
· The copyright of each poem remains with the author.
· Poems must sent by e-mail attachment to Amir Darwish of Exiled Writers Ink: amirdarwish32@gmail.com
· No alterations can be made to poems once entered.
· The judges’ decision is final. All entries will be judged anonymously.
Exiled Writers Ink ran a refugee literature afternoon at City and Islington College.