Purpose of the award

The objective of the English Language Literature Bursary Award is to enable professional writers and picture book artists (working mainly through the English language) to spend more time on their creative work. 

The award seeks to provide writers and picture book artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect, create and write. It enables writers and picture book artists to concentrate on their creative work for a period of time, usually by releasing them from their financial commitments. 

At both shortlisting and panel stage, emphasis is placed on the track record of the applicant, as demonstrated in the application form and CV. Promise and potential, as demonstrated in the application form and writing sample, are also considered.

The Literature Team hosted an information session about the 2023 Literature Bursary Award in which the Head of Literature took applicants through the guidelines of the award – including how applications are assessed – and answered questions. The presentation was conducted in English, but we would encourage applicants for both the English language and Irish language bursary to view the recording here.