Footnote Press and Counterpoints Arts have announced a new fiction award celebrating writers from refugee and migrant backgrounds, offering a £15,000 prize and a publishing deal for the winner.
The Footnote x Counterpoints prize for fiction, launching on Thursday, marks the second time the two organisations have collaborated on a prize. In 2023, writers were invited to submit narrative nonfiction, but now the prize will focus on fiction for the first time.
Open to writers living in the UK or Ireland, the prize is intended to uncover new literary voices whose work reflects the experiences of migration. Footnote Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, and Counterpoints Arts, a national organisation focusing on arts, migration and cultural change, say the award will highlight fiction “centred around themes of displacement, courage and belonging”.
The winner will receive a £7,500 cash prize and a further £7,500 advance as part of a publication agreement with Footnote Press. The Southbank Centre in London will support the prize by hosting a public event in May, where the shortlisted writers will read and discuss their work.
This year’s judging panel includes Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee, Waterstones’ head of books Bea Carvalho, Footnote Press commissioning editor Serena Arthur, and Almir Koldzic, director and co-founder of Counterpoints Arts.
“In a time marked by deepening divisions and intolerance, the prize feels especially necessary and urgent,” said Koldzic. “We hope it will help us amplify remarkable new literary voices and lived experiences of displacement, bringing us fresh perspectives and questions about our society today and in the future.”
Submissions are open and will close 13 February. Entries must include an 8,000–10,000-word sample and a synopsis of at least 1,500 words. A shortlist will be announced in May, with the winner revealed during Refugee Week in June.
“The prize is still centred around themes that are core to both Footnote’s ethos and list, but I’m especially excited to be turning to fiction this time around,” said Arthur.
The first Footnote x Counterpoints prize, awarded for nonfiction, was won by Sabrin Hasbun in 2024 for Crossing: A Love Story Between Italy and Palestine. Published in May this year, it is a memoir tracing the love story between Hasbun’s Palestinian father and her Italian mother.