A few weeks ago, I was informed that I had won the Sid Chaplin Award at the New Writing North Northern Writer’s Awards for my debut novel, He Too Must Sleep.
As you hear every award winner say, no matter their discipline, I couldn’t believe it. I checked the email every day before the award ceremony to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake or that they’d emailed the wrong person.
The award was for unpublished and established writers from a working-class background. It was judged between New Writing North, the North Literary Agency, Newcastle University, novelist Eva Verde, and Michael Chaplin, writer and son of Sid Chaplin.
Sid Chaplin’s work is incredibly influential on my own. He was a Co. Durham miner, wrote about the North East working class and made me realise that ‘normal’ people had a voice that the literary elite could not do the same justice, no matter how they tried. For Michael Chaplin to call my work ‘authentic’ and say he thinks his father would have liked it, blew my mind more than winning the award. I would have been blown away if I hadn’t won, but I had been told that.
At the awards, I met some incredible people in the book world, including festival organizers, new writers, established writers, journalists, and more. It was a celebration of the North and our art.
From here I get to enjoy a wealth of support from New Writing North, Michael Chaplin, Newcastle University and North Literary Agency that, without the award, is difficult to access for someone with no publishing connections.
I can’t wait to start a support programme, finish the book, and (hopefully) get it out into the wild.