The Ampersand Prize is Australia and New Zealand’s premier award for unpublished writers of middle-grade and young adult fiction. Created by Hardie Grant Egmont in 2012, the Ampersand Prize has launched the careers of numerous best-selling and critically acclaimed authors including Melissa Keil (Life in Outer Space), Erin Gough (The Flywheel), Cally Black (In The Dark Spaces), Rhiannon Williams (Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt) and Lisa Siberry (The Brilliant Ideas of Lily Green). The most recent winner, Frances Chapman, published her winning young adult novel, Stars Like Us, in July 2020.
The Ampersand Prize team is passionate about uncovering brilliant debut novels and bringing fresh voices to the world. If we fall in love with a manuscript, the writer receives an advance against royalties, a publishing contract, and rigorous editorial development to bring their book to market.
The 2020 Ampersand Prize key dates are as follows:
Entries open: 1st of July 2020
Entries close: 31st of July 2020
Shortlist announced in late October 2020.
Winner will be announced at Ampersand Prize Party at the end of the year.
You can find out more here: https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/egmont/ampersand-prize
