First prize : £10,000

Established in 1998 within the Department of English at MMU, the Manchester Writing School is a thriving centre of creative excellence, hosting a vibrant series of public reading events, a leading programme of outreach activities, and a biennial festival of children's literature. At the core of the School's work is the university's ambitious MA Creative Writing programme, available to study on campus in Manchester, and also internationally through online distance learning in the Virtual Writing School. Many students and graduates have gone on to have their work accepted for publication. This success has been attributed to the quality of teaching on offer across the programme – especially the detailed editorial work that goes on in fiction and poetry workshops.

The MA is taught by a team of distinguished practising writers and critics. In 2010/11, these include Sherry Ashworth, Heather Beck, Vicki Bertram, Andrew Biswell, Nicky Browne, Nikolai Duffy, Catherine Fox, Carola Luther, Jenny Mayhew, Michael Symmons Roberts, Jacqueline Roy, Nicholas Royle, Andrew Rudd and Jean Sprackland. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is the School's Creative Director, and also teaches on the programme.

In 2008, funded by the University's innovative Enterprise Fellowship scheme, the Manchester Writing School built on its ongoing work by launching the Manchester Writing Competition – a new literary prize designed to attract and celebrate the best new writing from around the world, and to establish Manchester as the focal point for a major literary award.

Each year, the competition aims to award a substantial cash prize to the overall winner, or winners. The competition will alternate between Poetry and Fiction on an annual basis.

To find out more and enter, please click on the links below:

• The Manchester Poetry Prize
  
  
• The Manchester Fiction Prize