Announcing the New Travel Writer of the Year competition 2019

First Prize
The wonderful main prize is a three-night winter break for two in Lapland at the Wilderness Hotel Inari, courtesy of Wexas, a commission to write an article about the prize trip for publication in Traveller magazine 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 2019).

All three shortlisted entrants will be invited to join the judges at the awards ceremony – at which the winner will be announced and the trophy presented – to be held in early spring (date and venue tbc). 

Enter

The theme is ‘Out of the Blue’ 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 25th of November 2018. 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, and those published in Bradt’s series of anthologies). 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• Confirm you are an unpublished writer (defined in our T&Cs here) by typing the following into the body of your email: “I confirm that I am an unpublished travel writer and have not previously received any payment for a piece of travel writing published either in print or online at the time of entry.”
• The subject line of your email should read ‘New Travel Writer of the Year 2019’, followed by either OPT IN or OPT OUT.
• The shortlist will be posted on our website in early 2019. If you wish to be notified of the shortlist by email as soon as it is released, we will need your consent to be contacted via e-newsletter, (even if you are already a subscriber to our newsletter mailing list) so please choose OPT IN. This will also mean you are first to hear about our future travel-writing opportunities. By consenting to receive marketing correspondence, you agree that we may share your details with our competition partners Wexas, Wexas Traveller Magazine, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards and Travellers’ Tales.
• If you don’t wish to receive our e-newsletter, please choose OPT OUT. As above, we will post the shortlist announcement on our website so please check there.
• Full details of our privacy policy can be found here.
• Deadline for entering is midnight on the 25th November 2018. The shortlisted three entrants will be notified in early January.
• 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. Last years finalists’ entries are available to read 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 18th of November and featuring a panel including Bradt’s founder Hilary Bradt.

Expert Feedback

Once again we are offering entrants to the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year the opportunity to receive detailed expert feedback on their entry.

Jonathan Lorie is a former editor of Traveller magazine who has written for the Guardian, Independent, National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveller, among many others. As well as running the Travellers’ Tales training courses he has been a judge of the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year competition for many years.

Jonathan’s new book The Travel Writer’s Way will be published by Bradt in January 2019. This unique, practical 12-step programme helps readers develop their travel writing through enjoyable creative exercises and expert tuition. It features exclusive interviews on the craft of travel writing from several notable professional writers including Paul Theroux, Robert MacFarlane, Colin Thubron and Sara Wheeler.

Jonathan is offering a half-hour telephone or Skype call in which he will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your entry, possible next steps for your travel writing and answer any questions you may have. Price: £30.00 + VAT

Anyone requesting feedback will also have the opportunity to buy a signed copy of The Travel Writer’s Way for the special price of £10.00 (RRP £14.99 – no VAT payable on print book sales in the UK).

For more infortmation and to request feedback on your entry, please contact holly.parsons@bradtguides.com. All feedback calls will take place after the winning entries have been announced, at a time to be agreed between Jonathan Lorie and the entrant.

Terms & conditions

For full terms and conditions please click here.