Two international shortlists have been revealed for the Manchester Fiction Prize and Manchester Poetry Prize, which together make up the Manchester Writing Competition 2020, the UK’s biggest awards for unpublished writing.

Since the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy launched the prizes in 2008 they have helped to accelerate the careers of several new and emerging writers who have gone on to become big literary names and rising stars, including Mona Arshi, Helen Mort, Alison Moore, Pascale Petit and Martin MacInnes.

The awards are organised by the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, where Carol Ann is Creative Director.

The winner of each prize receives £10,000. This year will see the total prize money given out to winners pass £200,000. Poetry Prize finalists are judged on three to five unpublished poems, while Fiction Prize entrants submitted a short story of up to 2,500 words.

The Manchester Fiction Prize 2020 judging panel is chaired by novelist and short story writer Nicholas Royle, while the Poetry Prize panel is headed up by poet Malika Booker, who recently won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

For the full shortlist, you can read the Manchester Met. announcement here.