Faculty of Arts

Penguin Manuscript Award

This Prize supported by the generosity of the Penguin Group (Australia) and the school of Culture and Communication, aims to encourage postgraduate students at the University of Melbourne who are enrolled in Creative Writing to submit an extended prose manuscript, with the opportunity for professional development and possible publication.

 

Eligibility

The scholarship is open to:

  1. Entry is available to currently enrolled University of Melbourne post graduate Creative Writing students or to postgraduate students who have been enrolled during the 12 months prior to competition entry date.
  2. Manuscripts submitted for this prize must be at least 20,000 words but should be intended to form part of a work of at least 60,000 words when completed. If an excerpt from a longer manuscript is submitted, a one-page synopsis must be included.
  3. The prize is open to works in any prose genre for an adult audience (poetry and scripts are excluded);
  4. The prize is open to emerging writers who have not had a book published for an adult audience before.
  5. Contestants warrant that:
    1. the manuscript is an original work, has not been previously published in its full form anywhere throughout the world and is in no way whatever an infringement of any existing copyright or licence or any other right of any person or otherwise actionable at law. (If an excerpt from the work has been published previously, full publication details must be provided.);
    2. the manuscript can form part of a postgraduate thesis for the University of Melbourne;
    3. the manuscript contains no defamatory matter, any material in breach of official secrets laws or any matter which invades any individual's rights of privacy and all statements in the Work purporting to be facts are true;
    4. the Work is capable of protection by copyright.
  6. Contestants that want to be considered for the Prize must be aware that Penguin Group has first right of refusal over the manuscript. Penguin Group has sole discretion to decide whether or not it wants to publish the manuscript or enter into a commercial arrangement with the prize winner. In the event that Penguin Group decides not to enter into a commercial arrangement with prize winner, then the winner will be free of commitment to Penguin Group.

 

Selection Panel

 

Applicants can only apply online for this scholarship.

You must supply the following documents to support your application and can upload these into the electronic application form:

  1. Current Academic Record
  2. A manuscript with at least 20,000 words of a book-length creative prose (do not write your name on the manuscript only the title) (5 copies)
  3. Certified copy of proof of Australian Citizenship (Passport, Birth Certificate, Citizenship Certificate)


Hard copies (5) can be mailed to: (please attach a coversheet)


Your online application will then be matched to your hard copy submission.

Please ensure you have the above information available before you commence your online application.

Applications must be submitted by closing date.


The judges' decision will be final and the University reserves the right not to award the prize in the event it is considered that no work of sufficient merit has been submitted. Winning applicants please note the University of Melbourne reserves the right to publish the name of the winning applicant on its websites and other University of Melbourne publications.

 

Closing date:

Not offered in 2012


Prize value:

$5000 plus 25 hours of editorial manuscript development assistance.


University Trust Record:

None

 

Students walking throught the University of Melbourne Arts precint

 

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