Blackwell’s named as new headline sponsor for Kitschies Literary Award
The Kitschies, the annual literary award that recognises “the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic” has announced that Blackwell’s, the nationwide chain of specialist bookshops, is to be its new headline sponsor.
The awards, which includes categories for novel; debut novel; cover art and digital fiction offers financial prizes up of £500 and £1000 for the its ‘Tentacle’ awards for
novel (Red Tentacle), debut novel (Golden Tentacle), cover art (Inky Tentacle) and digitally native fiction (Invisible Tentacle). As part of the new relationship, The Kitschies and Blackwell’s will also be working together to deliver a series of events for lovers of speculative literature in many of its almost 40 bookshops around the country.
The closing date for The Kitschies is midnight on November 1st each year. Applications are open only to work first published in the United Kingdom between 1 January and 31 December of the year in question. Previous winners include Margaret Atwood, Karen Lord, Patrick Ness, Becky Chambers, Lauren Beukes, Ruth Ozeki and China Miéville.
Kieron Smith, Blackwell’s Digital Director comments:
“The Kitschies has a track record of highlighting some of the most exciting, and engaging fiction published over the last few years and matches our mission to support progressive intelligent and entertaining genre literature. We look forward to working with The Kitschies to introduce more great titles to readers in our shops, and online at Blackwells.co.uk, over the coming year.”
Glen Mehn, Kitschies awards director, says:
“We think that Blackwell’s are exactly the right sponsor for The Kitschies: not only are they one of the most recognised high street bookshop brands, they understand our mission: getting people talking about, reading, and loving books.”
About Blackwell’s
Trading since 1879, Blackwell’s is the largest academic and specialist bookseller in the UK. In addition to flagship shops in Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh and London, it has a permanent presence at or close to around 30 universities around the UK, from Aberdeen and Belfast to Exeter and Portsmouth, as well as a complete online offering and a special free-to-download eLearning platform developed specifically with students in mind.