FAB prize 2018

Faber and Andlyn to repeat the FAB Prize for Undiscovered BAME Talent following huge success of inaugural prize.

Faber Children’s is now opening submissions for the Faber and Andlyn BAME (FAB) Prize for undiscovered BAME writers and illustrators. This is following on from the hugely successful inaugural prize. Since the winners were announced Faber has signed up one of the commended authors, Hannah Lee, whose picture book My Hair will publish in Summer 2019. She says of the prize:

‘I wrote my entry for the Prize with my nephew and niece in mind. I want them and other children to be able to open books and see characters that look like them and the people around them in the pages. Creating an opportunity like the FAB Prize gives BAME authors the chance to share amazing stories and perspectives that have previously been neglected or overlooked due to the prioritising of one kind of voice in the industry.’

And there is more news to come.

This year there are two new judges on the panel; author/illustrator Nadia Shireen (The Bumblebear) and author Smriti Prasadam-Halls (T-Veg) will join Faber’s Children’s Publisher, Leah Thaxton, Creative Director, Donna Payne and Children’s Art Director, Emma Eldridge, alongside the Andlyn Agency’s Davinia Andrew-Lynch.

Prize Details

First Prize

For illustration:

£500 (or £300 and a one year portfolio membership for the Association of Illustrators worth £200), plus a private consultation with Donna Payne, Emma Eldridge and Davinia Andrew-Lynch, followed by a year of regular mentoring, plus a selection of Faber books.

For text:

£500, plus a private consultation with Leah Thaxton and Davinia Andrew-Lynch, followed by a year of regular mentoring, plus a selection of Faber books.

Second Prize

Consultation with Leah Thaxton, Donna Payne, Emma Eldridge and Davinia Andrew-Lynch, plus a selection of Faber books.

• Entrants must be of black, Asian or minority ethnic background
• Entrants must be previously unpublished
• Entries must be text or artwork for children (i.e. 1–18 years), not for adults
• UK and Ireland residents only
• Applicants must be over 18
• Applicants can apply for both prizes – text and illustration – but can only submit one entry per text or art category.

All email entries will be acknowledged on receipt, but only winners will be contacted directly, so please watch out for the announcement in June 2018!

Text submission criteria

• Please email or send by post a maximum of 5,000 words of text
• There is no minimum word count and the maximum 5,000 words can be a sample of a longer work – it does not have to be a short story (though those are welcome too!)
• Please send in the complete story if the text is for a picture book. (Picture books should not be longer than 5000 words!)
• If your text competition entry is for an illustrated book, you do not need to submit illustrations
• If sending by post, NO handwritten entries please
• Please do not send original work. Please do not send CDs of work
• We will not be able to return entries
• If emailing, please send the text either as a Word document or a PDF attachment, not in the body of the email, and put ‘Text Submission’ as the subject of your email heading
• Please include your name in the file name

Illustration submission criteria

• Please email or send by post either 1) a maximum of ten A4 pages of illustration OR 2) the full layouts and illustrations for a 32-page picture book
• Please do not send original work. Please do not send CDs of work
• We will not be able to return entries
• Entries can include text, but text is not necessary to enter the illustration competition
• If emailing, please send your art as a PDF attachment, and put ‘Art Submission’ as the subject of your email heading.
• Please include your name in the file name

Please send your entries by email to fab@faber.co.uk or please send your postal entries marked TEXT SUBMISSION, FAB PRIZE, or ILLUSTRATION SUBMISSION, FAB PRIZE to Faber & Faber, 74–77 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DA. 

If you have any queries about criteria, please email fab@faber.co.uk

• Competition opens: 18 December 2017

• Competition last date for entries: 6 April 2018

• Winner announcement: 1 June 2018