The Nan Shepherd Prize 2023 is open for submissions!

31 May 2023

The Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented voices in nature writing is once again open for submissions, looking for book proposals from exciting new writers, with the winner receiving a £10,000 contract with Canongate.

The prize runs every two years and this will be its third outing after Nina Mingya Powles became the inaugural winner in 2019 with Small Bodies of Water, and Marchelle Farrelle won in 2021 with Uprooting, which publishes on 1 August of this year.

Entries are open between now and 17 July to writers who consider themselves underrepresented in nature writing, whether through ethnicity, disability, class, sex, gender, sexuality or any other circumstances. The prize is deliberately structured so that entry requirements match what an agent or publisher would ask for in a book proposal: a one-page synopsis, an outline of the planned chapters, a sample of no more than 7,000 words and a writer’s biog. Full details of elegibility and submission guidelines can be found here.

Good luck to everyone entering!