Written by Bradt Travel Guides
Want to try your hand at travel writing? We’ve teamed up with the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards to launch a very, very special competition for unpublished travel writers.
The Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year competition offers the chance for three aspiring travel writers to see their talent recognised at a glittering awards ceremony in the presence of some of the country’s best-known travel writers, publishers and editors. Furthermore, the first prize is quite astounding: a week-long Gorilla and Lion Safari holiday for two in Uganda, provided by TravelLocal and worth over £6,000. The trip will take in Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and feature travel by 4×4 vehicle, raft and hot air balloon! The winner will receive a commission to write an article about their trip for the Bradt website (giving them a published piece for their CV), as well as a unique antique globe trophy and a place on the next Bradt Travel Writing Seminar (run in conjunction with leading travel-writing training agency Travellers’ Tales).
Three short-listed finalists will be invited to join the judges for dinner at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards ceremony on the 2nd of February 2017, during which the winner will be revealed. The two runners-up will also receive places on the Bradt seminar.
It’s a unique competition for anyone who either aspires to be a travel writer or simply enjoys writing about their travels and relishes a challenge. There’s surely no other competition in the world open to unpublished travel writers that offers such incredible prizes. And you could be one of the winners!
To enter the competition, you should write a piece of 600–800 words relating to the theme ‘A brief encounter’. The piece must be original, written in the first person and based on personal experience relating to the theme. The deadline for submission is midnight on the 2nd of January 2017. The competition is open only to those who have never received payment for a travel-related article published in print or online (with the exception of competition entries for which a cash prize is awarded). For full entry details, terms and conditions, see the links below.
Bradt has a long-standing commitment to the promotion of excellent travel writing, and we have run an annual writing competition for over 20 years. By teaming up with the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards – which honour some of the country’s best published writers – we are able to provide not only unique prizes but a priceless platform for three aspiring writers to showcase their skills to the professional travel-writing community.
Prizes
The wonderful main prize is an Edward Stanford Awards antique globe trophy, a 7-day Gorillas and Lions Safari in Uganda provided by TravelLocal, a commission to write an article about the prize trip for publication on the Bradt website, and a place on the annual Bradt Travel-Writing Seminar (run in conjunction with Travellers’ Tales, the UK’s leading training agency for aspiring travel writers).
Two runners-up will receive places on the annual Bradt Travel-Writing Seminar (held in November).
All three shortlisted entrants will be invited to join the judges at a glittering awards ceremony dinner – at which the winner will be announced and the trophy presented – to be held at a hotel near London Olympia on the 2nd of February 2017.
Enter
The theme is ‘A brief encounter’ and entries must be original, written in English, written in the first person, and based on a personal experience relating to the theme. Minimum length is 600 words and maximum length is 800 words. The closing date for entries to reach us is midnight on the 2nd of January 2017. The competition is open to anyone over 18 who has not previously received payment for a travel-related article published in print or online (with the exception of competition entries for which a cash prize is awarded). If you are in doubt about whether or not you qualify to enter the competition, please contact holly.parsons@bradtguides.com.
How to enter:
- Send your entry as an attached Word Document to travelwriting@bradtguides.com
- Give your entry a title and use that title as the file name for your Word Document.
- Do not include your name in the Word Document itself (pieces are judged anonymously).
- Provide your full name, email, postal address and a daytime telephone number in the body of your email.
- Confirm you are an unpublished writer (defined in our T&Cs here) by typing the following into the body of your email: “I confirm that I am an unpublished travel writer and have not previously received any payment for a piece of travel writing published either in print or online at the time of entry.”
- Put ‘New Travel Writer of the Year’ in the subject line of your email.
- Deadline for entering is midnight on the 2nd January 2017. The shortlisted three entrants will be notified by 23rd of January 2017.
- We regret we are unable to accept entries by post.
Tips & advice
For some advice from our judges and examples of good writing from previous Bradt travel-writing competitions, click here. And if you’d like more detailed advice from the experts on how to break into travel writing – including both the art and craft of writing articles and how to get your work published – then book yourself on the next one-day Bradt Travel-Writing Seminar being held on the 20th of November and featuring a panel including Ben Ross (travel editor at The Telegraph).
Terms & conditions
For full terms and conditions please click here.
