Writing competition - A very special place
The British Guild of Travel Writers’ 50th Anniversary Travel Writing Competition in association with Traveller magazine.
Click here to download a pdf of this competition as it appears in the Autumn 2009 issue of Traveller magazine.
Want to be a travel writer?
Can you write a winning travel article that brings a destination alive?
The British Guild of Travel Writers is marking its 50th anniversary year with the launch of a new travel writing competition in partnership with Traveller.
The Guild (www.bgtw.org), founded in 1960, is the premier professional association for bona-fide journalists, editors, photographers, and radio and film broadcasters working in the travel field.
"The Guild has supported excellence in travel writing for half a century now and we want to celebrate our special year by championing new travel writing talent," says BGTW Press & PR Co-ordinator Sarah Monaghan. "The winning entry will be a beautifully written piece that is a celebration of a world destination, be it an exotic location or one closer to home."
The competition
The competition is open to all writers aged over 18 who have not been published in the travel field. Entrants should submit an 800-word article with the theme A Very Special Place.
Traveller is recognised as the UK’s most literary travel magazine and editor Amy Sohanpaul has this advice for entrants: "Good travel writing shows a strong sense of place. We are looking for a first-person narrative written in article form, in which the writing sings and the reader is both transported and transformed by the writing."
The prizes
First prize offers an intensive exploration of your writing potential in an exciting destination. Courtesy of Travellers’ Tales, the training agency for travel writing and travel photography, the winner will enjoy a four-day travel writing holiday in the intoxicating city of Istanbul.
You will discover the city while practising your writing skills with a small group of fellow writers under the expert tuition of tutors such as Anthony Sattin, the distinguished Middle East expert, and Jonathan Lorie, former editor of Traveller and founder of the Travellers’ Tales Festival (the next one takes place in London on 19-21 February 2010). See www.travellerstales.org
Second prize is a trip to Berlin courtesy of WEXAS, The Traveller’s Club, in association with Hotel Berlin and Lufthansa. The prizewinner will enjoy a two-night stay in a double or twin room at the Hotel Berlin on a B&B basis, plus two return economy flights from the UK with Lufthansa.
Third prize is the winner’s selection of 10 travel guides from award-winning publisher Bradt – whose guides Michael Palin has described as ‘expertly written and longer on local detail than any others’. See www.bradt-travelguides.com.
Prize giving
The winners will be announced in February at a prize ceremony at a leading London hotel, during the launch of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Yearbook 2010 attended by hundreds of the UK’s top travel writers, photographers and travel industry representatives. The winning entry will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of Traveller and on the Guild website, www.bgtw.org.
The judges
The competition will be judged by:
Sarah Monaghan editor of Gabon Magazine and winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Trade and Tourism Award 2007
Amy Sohanpaul editor of Traveller and The Traveller’s Handbook, and a judge of the prestigious Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards
Jonathan Lorie director of Travellers’ Tales and the Travellers’ Tales Festival, and editor of The Traveller’s Handbook
Peter Hughes founding editor of ITV’s Wish You Were Here? and the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Travel Writer of the Year 2008
The sponsors
The British Guild of Travel Writers
Bradt travel guides
Traveller magazine
Travellers’ Tales
WEXAS – The Traveller’s Club
How to enter
Entries may be posted or emailed. To preserve anonymity when judging, you must not write your name on the article itself. Please follow these instructions:
- Email entries should be sent to secretariat@bgtw.org with the subject line ‘Guild Travel Writing Competition’. Your entry should be a Word document attachment, with a two-word tagline but without your name and address. A separate Word document should be attached giving the two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
- Postal entries should be sent to BGTW Secretariat, 26 Needwood House, Woodberry Down, London, N4 2TN. Do not put your name and address on the article, but give it a two-word tagline. On a separate piece of paper, write this two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
Terms and conditions
- The competition is open to all writers over 18, both UK and non-UK residents, other than current employees, or regular contributors, or their immediate families, of the BGTW, Traveller, Bradt Travel Guides, Travellers’ Tales and Stanfords. No purchase is necessary. By entering the competition, participants agree that their name and place of residence may be released if they win a prize; that should they win the competition, their name and likeness may be used by the sponsors for pre-arranged promotional purposes.
- Writers must be unpublished in the field of travel writing. This means never having been paid for any piece of travel writing that has appeared in print or on the internet.
- One entry per person. Entries cannot be acknowledged or returned.
- The article must be 800 words and submitted with single-line spacing in 12-point font. If submitted on paper, it should be printed on one side only, on A4 paper.
- Entries may be posted or emailed. To preserve anonymity when judging, you must not write your name on the article itself. Please follow these instructions:
- Email entries should be sent to secretariat@bgtw.org with the subject line ‘Guild Travel Writing Competition’. Your entry should be a Word document attachment, with a two-word tagline but without your name and address. A separate Word document should be attached giving the two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
- Postal entries should be sent to BGTW Secretariat, 26 Needwood House, Woodberry Down, London, N4 2TN. Do not put your name and address on the article, but give it a two-word tagline. On a separate piece of paper, write this two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
- Your details may be shared with the competition partners unless otherwise requested by you on the sheet of paper or email containing your contact details.
- All entries must be received by the closing date of 31 December 2009.
- Your entry must not have been entered in any other competition or have previously been published either in whole or in part.
- The article must be the original work of the entrant who must be the sole copyright holder.
- The writers of the winning entries agree, by entering the competition, that Traveller and BGTW shall have the exclusive right to first publication in print and online format.
- There is no cash alternative and prizes will not be transferable. For the first prize, flights to and from Istanbul are at the winner’s expense.
- Once the winners are announced in February 2010, entrants other than the winners may use their pieces in whatever way they choose.
- The judges’ opinion is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
