Bath Children’s Novel Award 2026 with a GBP 5,000 Prize
Applicant criteria
- No specific age required
- Both
Opportunity criteria
Opportunity description
The Bath Novel Awards is accepting entries for the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2026, one of the international awards and competitions dedicated to writers of children’s and young adult literature. The competition offers a cash prize of GBP 5,000 for the selected winning work.
The award is aimed at emerging writers from around the world and welcomes submissions across a variety of categories, including children’s novels, young adult (YA) fiction, teen fiction, chapter books, early readers, and picture book texts.
The competition is particularly suitable for writers seeking international creative writing awards and competitions, as participation is not restricted by nationality or country. Writers from Arab countries may also apply with works written in English, including translated works.
Accepted Works
Applicants may submit work in one of the following categories:
- Young Adult (YA) novels.
- Teen fiction.
- Children’s novels.
- Chapter books.
- Early readers.
- Picture book texts.
Benefits
The competition offers:
- GBP 5,000 for the winner of the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2026.
- The Minerva Trophy for the winner.
- An evaluation of the winning work by children’s literary agent Chloe Seager.
- Shortlisted writers will receive a collection of comments and feedback from the Junior Judges on their full manuscripts.
- Longlisted writers will receive feedback on the submitted extract and synopsis.
- One longlisted writer will receive a free place on the Edit Your Novel the Professional Way online course, which runs for 18 weeks and is valued at GBP 1,980.
- Full retention of intellectual property rights to the submitted work.
Eligibility criteria
Applicants may apply if they:
- Are of any age.
- Are of any nationality or country of residence.
- Are emerging writers who are not represented by a literary agent.
- Have not previously accepted a publishing offer for a novel or children’s book that included an advance payment from the publisher.
- Submit an original work written by themselves.
- Submit the work in English.
The competition accepts:
- Unpublished works.
- Self-published works.
- Works published without an advance payment.
- Works translated into English.
Application Fee
The entry fee is:
GBP 33 per novel or chapter book, or per submission containing up to three picture book texts.
Applicants may submit more than one entry, but a separate fee must be paid for each submission.
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