Winner of the first Luke Bitmead Bursary announced

Unpublished author Andrew Blackman, from North London, has been announced as the winner of the 2008 Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary and was awarded £2,500 as well as a publishing contract with Legend Press for his novel On the Holloway Road. Two additional prizes were awarded on the night to 2^nd and 3^rd place writers James Higgerson and Andrew Kirby. The shortlist of 11 authors were selected by a judging panel comprising Legend Press, best selling authors Sam Mills and Zoe Jenny and Luke’s family, from hundreds of submissions.

 

We are delighted to announce Andrew as the first winner of this fantastic award. Life is often incredibly tough for aspiring writers if they do not have the financial backing to match their ability, no matter how talented. This award goes someway to addressing that balance and helps turn ambition into reality. From working with the unforgettable Luke, I know he will be delighted at the opportunity the bursary creates and we can’t wait to start working with Andrew on his superb novel.

 

Lucy and Tom

 

 

 

Comments

[Josie]

Thanks to all for organising the award and the event, it was great fun! Nice to see Catherine, Nick and Mark there as well. Good on you supporting Legend events. It was lovely to meet Luke’s family as well and I really appreciate all the time and effort put into reading the manuscripts and making the difficult decisions.

I met some great people and managed to congratulate a few of the other shortlisted. Anyone who I didn’t get to, please accept my congrats now! I didn’t get near the winner, but met the second prize winner and encouraged him to submit his book to Legend anyway as it’s surely more likely to be of interest than an unsolicited manuscript! I will put my runner-up money to good use.

I got home at about 1.45 this morning and now I’m ready to sleep again.

[David A Allan]

Congratulations to Andrew and indeed to my fellow shortlistees. Sorry I couldn't come down from Glasgow to join you last night but as you will recognise the life of a starving novelist makes such things prohibitive. It was a great boost to me to be shortlisted and thanks to everyone who took the time to read GOODBYE TEAR.
Regards and best wishes
David a Allan

[Josie]

Congrats David - you got a round of applause in your absence. And yes we all understood that Glasgow was a tad too far to come. :-) Good luck with submitting your novel, you can use this shortlisting as a boost on your query letter now.

[Paul Seaton]

Hearty congrats to Andrew - both his own back-story and the one he has been through so much to write clearly made him a very worthy winner!

Was fantastic to meet other writers and of course, the LP team, MERCILESS et al :) - a fantastic event which as Luke's mum so poignatly spoke about, one would clearly have approved of.

A wonderful evening all round.

Paul Seaton

[Catherine]

'Twas a fab night. Was great to meet new people and great to catch up with those I had met before. Thanks to all who played a part in organising it.
Congrats to all the prize winners and well done to Elaine and Tiffany for all their work in ensuring something positive comes out of Luke's talent.

I'll get the photos online somewhere once I've retrieved the camera from my suitcase.

Cx