Hodder & Stoughton and the Science Museum have partnered to launch a new award, the Science Fiction Debuts Prize, in celebration of the museum’s upcoming exhibition “Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination”.
From 4th June, unpublished and unagented writers from the UK will be invited to submit the first 10,000 words of a novel within the science fiction genre and a 500-word synopsis.
The open submissions period will run for several months, closing at midnight on 30th September. The winner will receive £4,000, alongside a full critique of their work, a six-month-long mentoring programme with Hodderscape editorial director Molly Powell and an introduction to three literary agents.
The runner-up will receive £2,000, alongside a full critique of the work submitted, and the rest of the shortlist will receive a cash prize of £800 and feedback from the judging panel.
A shortlist will be announced at the Science Museum’s Late event on 26th October and the winner will be selected in January 2023 by a panel of well-known but currently unnamed science fiction authors and industry figures.
Powell said: “From Arthur C Clarke to Octavia Butler, from Star Wars to Dune, science fiction creators have long imagined and built new worlds to better understand our own, and it is vital we continue empowering them to do so, today and into the future. I am so excited to be launching this inaugural Science Fiction Debuts Prize, which I hope will inspire writers across the UK.”
Glyn Morgan, lead curator for Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, which will be open to the public in the autumn, added: “Science fiction invites us to consider the world around us, our impact on it, and to consider alternatives. New writers are the lifeblood of any genre, but in science fiction where reinvention and innovation are so vital, they are particularly important, and I’m delighted that the Science Museum can play a small role in discovering some of the exciting new talent of the future.”