2024 participants
We are delighted to announce the eight participants of the inaugural Prototype Development Programme, which we are running this year in partnership with New Writing North.
We were overwhelmed by the number and quality of applications, and it was extremely difficult to choose from so many strong candidates. Our final list represents an outstanding and varied cross- section of artists and writers for whom we are confident the programme will be extremely beneficial at this stage of their careers.
The 2024 participants are: Louis Bailey, Eloise Bennett, Miruna Fulgeanu, Jordan Hayward, Rozie Kelly, Rochelle Roberts, Irína Sadóvina, and Maya Uppal.
Louis Bailey is a sociologist by training whose academic work explores experiences of trauma, marginalisation, and resistance. He is currently working on his first book, The Night Run, which was shortlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize for nature writing. Louis’s poetry has appeared in several anthologies by Beautiful Dragons Press, and his poem-film cycle, We Rare Things, was performed at Salford TGDOR 2020. His cross-genre work has been published by SkearZines and his visual work – exploring folklore, invisibility and moral panics – has featured in a range of exhibitions including ‘Out in the Shires’ (Worcester) and ‘Continuum’ (People’s History Museum, Manchester).
Eloise Bennett is an art historian and curator focused on experimental writing, performance, early cybernetic practices and networked listening. She holds a PhD from Tate and Edinburgh College of Art (funded by AHRC), and has worked with Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Tate St Ives. Her research has recently been supported by the Paul Mellon Centre and Jerwood Arts, and her work has been presented on Montez Press Radio and in Motor Dance Journal. From January 2024 she will be Curator and Programme Manager at Jupiter Artland.
Miruna Fulgeanu is a Romanian-born poet and translator based in London. Her work has appeared in Poetry London, The Yale Review, The Rialto, PERVERSE and PROTOTYPE 2, among others. She won the 2023 Oxford Poetry Prize and received a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2022.
Jordan Hayward is a poet based in Manchester, who is a founder and curator of Basket, an event series for poetry, art, and sound in Manchester. His poetry has appeared in The Rialto and bath magg, and he is a member of this year’s New Poets Collective at the Southbank Centre.
Rozie Kelly is a prose writer based in West Yorkshire. After reading English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University and the University of Manchester, she moved to the little town of Hebden Bridge where she works for the Arvon Foundation, hosting creative writing courses. Her current work-in-progress, Salt Tooth, was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction Prize 2023.
Rochelle Roberts is a writer and editor based in London. She has written essays, poetry and reviews for various publications including Studio International, PERVERSE, Lucy Writers Platform and Poetry Birmingham, as well as in the books Anne-thology: Poems Re-Presenting Anne Shakespeare (Broken Sleep Books, 2023), Glimpses of Community (Munch Museum, 2023) and Cusp: Feminist Writings on Bodies, Myth & Magic (Ache, 2021). Her debut poetry pamphlet, Your Retreating Shadow, was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2022
Irína Sadóvina has done research in comparative literary and cultural studies, and is now focusing on writing and translation. She was born in Yoshkar-Ola, lived in North America and Europe, and now lives in Sheffield. Find her work at irinasadovina.com.
Maya Uppal is a poet and workshop facilitator, based in Glasgow. Their current research is a form of creative Art History aimed at exploring objects and archives through different temporal lenses by re-imagining stories of the past. Their poetry can be found in SPAM, MUCK, Mellom Press, Gutter Magazine, David Dale Gallery and Brilliant Vibrating Interface.
The Prototype Development Programme is a new scheme offering extended support and career development to eight emerging writers and artists. The programme is funded by Arts Council England, and runs alongside the recently established Prototype Prize.
As a publisher committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition, we have first-hand experience of the challenges of supporting writing that sits between traditional publishing categories. While there are a growing number of opportunities and mentoring schemes for poets and novelists, there is a distinct lack of opportunities for writers and artists whose work sits between conventional literary forms, and this scheme aims to fill that gap.
The six-month programme will offer remote learning and personal development through a series of group workshops and feedback sessions, alongside a programme of five seminars led by different pairings of curators, writers, publishers, editors, and literary agents, all carried out online, making them widely accessible.
The programme features workshops led by: poets Lucy Mercer and Anthony Anaxagorou; Simon Goode and Ira Yonemura (London Centre for Book Arts); curators Hana Noorali and Lynton Talbot; publishers Sam Fisher (Peninsula Press) and Jack Thompson (Cipher Press); literary agent Harriet Moore (David Higham Associates) and editor Vanessa Peterson ( frieze).
Background
The Prototype Development Programme is funded by Arts Council England, and forms part of a wider project focused on multidisciplinary and hybrid-genre approaches to writing, centred around a new prize in partnership with frieze magazine, which will run adjacent to this programme.
As a publisher committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition, we have first-hand experience of the challenges of supporting writing that sits between traditional publishing categories. While there are a growing number of opportunities and mentoring schemes for poets and novelists, there is a distinct lack of opportunities for writers and artists whose work sits between conventional literary forms, and this scheme aims to fill that gap.
Who is this opportunity for?
We are looking for eight writers and/or artists to take part in a six-month online programme, consisting of seminars and workshops alongside focused editorial work and monthly feedback from two experienced editors.
The programme is funded by Arts Council England and is open to applicants anywhere in the UK. Three of the eight places are ringfenced for writers based in the North of England.
Writers based in the North of England should select this option when applying, and your application will be reviewed by New Writing North.
The programme is committed to longevity and sustainability, both in its duration and through the skills and experience it will equip its participants with. New Writing North-selected participants will receive access to their wider network, and every participant will have their work published in issue 6 of the annual PROTOTYPE anthology.
We are especially keen to reach writers from underrepresented backgrounds, and we encourage applications from global majority, working-class, disabled, LGBTQ+ and other communities that have been historically underrepresented in UK publishing. We hope to offer an extended and focused period of support to emerging writers who might not have the opportunity to access such creative and career development.
Each participant will be paid a bursary of £500. Writers who submit to the programme are also eligible to submit to the Prototype Prize.
What will you be expected to do?
The main objective of the programme is to offer the expertise of the creative professionals delivering the workshops and editorial sessions, and there is no requirement to produce a specific or defined piece of work at the end of the programme.
You will be asked to submit work as part of the application process, and to bring to the course work that can be shared with the group, and with the editors, which you will edit and develop throughout the programme’s duration.
You will be expected to attend one two-hour seminar each month, and to contribute to online forum discussions, both by sharing your work and commenting on the work of other participants.
You will not be required to travel to any events, but will be invited to attend a launch event (location tbc) either in person or online at the end of the project period.
Award Eligibility
The programme is open only to writers and artists who have not had a book-length publication or a solo exhibition. If you have had your work published in pamphlets, anthologies, magazines, or similar publications, you are welcome to apply.
You do not have to have had any work published or exhibited before. This programme is aimed at individuals who are at the start of their careers, and who would not otherwise have access to the opportunities and professional development the programme will provide, and we will prioritise applications which show this.
To apply, you will be asked to submit a sample of work of up to 20 pages, in PDF format. This may be poetry, fiction, non-fiction or visual work.
The award is open to submissions of work written in World English by writers of any nationality or descent who at the time of entering are permanently resident in the UK.
Three out of a total of eight places will be awarded by New Writing North. Applicants who apply for these places must currently live full-time in the North of England. The North of England is defined as the areas covered by Arts Council England in Yorkshire, North East and North West. Please refer to this map for further clarification of the boundaries: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Map_area_boundaries.pdf
We regret that New Writing North are unable to accept submissions from outside these areas due to conditions in their funding from Arts Council England.
Applicants based elsewhere in the UK can apply via Prototype.
The programme supports emerging writers and artists. Applicants are not eligible if the work that they are submitting is currently part of a book deal that they have received a publishing contract and advance for. If you receive a book deal for your work during the judging period it is your responsibility to inform us of this fact.
You must be over the age of 18 to enter this award.
How to apply
All applicants will be asked to submit the following information:
- A brief outline of your experience to date. Please note that you do not have to have had any work published or exhibited before.
- A summary outlining why you are interested in the programme, how you hope to benefit from it, and details of one specific project you would like to develop throughout the duration of the programme.
- A sample of work of up to 20 pages, in PDF format. This may be poetry, fiction, non-fiction or visual work.
- An equal opportunities monitoring form
Applications are now closed, and decisions will be made by the end of January. If you have any queries, please email us at admin@prototypepublishing.co.uk.
