The poet and novelist Andrew McMillan has partnered with New Writing North to launch the Tempest Prize, a new addition to the Northern Writers’ Awards offering for 2024.

The Tempest Prize – named after the street in Barnsley where McMillan grew up – is worth over £2,000. One unpublished LGBTQ+ writer based in the North of England will receive a £1,000 bursary, mentoring from Andrew McMillan, and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Talent Network.

It will be open to submissions of poetry, fiction and narrative non-fiction and judged by McMillan, alongside a co-judge who will be announced in January 2024. The Tempest Prize will be open for entries between February and March 2024. The winner will be announced at the Northern Writers’ Awards Ceremony in June 2024 and begin their mentorship with McMillan later in 2024.

McMillan said: “I was raised to believe that literature isn’t elsewhere, its right where you are; it’s your town, your street, your voice, your accent, your life. So often, growing up as a young man in Barnsley, slowly realising I was gay, the representations of LGBTQ+ life in literature and media felt beautiful but distant. I was very fortunate, to have access to books, and to a world that brought it closer.

“Over the last decade there’s been a great flourishing of queer literature in the UK, which I’ve benefited from, and loved being in conversation with. I want, in a small way, to help that continue and develop. The aim of the Tempest Prize is to put my money where my mouth is, pay forward the good fortune and privilege I’ve enjoyed, and shine a light on queer stories wherever they might come from in the North of England.”