Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
THE NATIONAL Book Development Council of Jamaica's Literary Awards has returned after a five-year break and entries are now being invited for the Una Marson Award for Adult Literature and the Vic Reid Award for Children's Literature.
The former, which carries a $100,000 first prize, covers non-fiction prose, novels, plays, poetry and short stories, while the Vic Reid Award winner will earn $50,000 for a novel, play, poetry or short story.
SUBMIT ENTRY FORMS
However, those interested in submitting entries do not have much time left to do so, as the deadline is Friday, June 30. The original, unpublished manuscripts must be submitted to the parish library in the respective parishes, where the entry forms as well as rules are available.
Stephney Ferguson, vice-chairman of the Book Development Council, said the awards are being staged again after a five-year break. "It was originally scheduled to be held every two years," she said. However, after being started in 1993 and attracting the support of the National Commercial Bank (NCB), that source of funding dried up.
Ferguson said that the National Book Development Council is a non-profit organisation, hence funding for the prizes has to be raised. It is hoped that the biannual schedule will be kept from now on, as "we have a plan to make the thing more viable as we believe in it".
Entries are assessed by a panel of judges and depending on the standard of the entries in addition to the two main prizes, a consolation prize may be awarded in each section when the winners are announced in October or November.
Ferguson said that the council also tries to help the winner get published, naming novelist Garfield Ellis and poets Mervyn Morris and Anthony Neil among those whose work has been published through winning the competition.
Jamaicans or persons who have lived in Jamaica for at least 10 years are allowed to enter.
