Tuesday 11 March 2003: Julia Darling was the second winner of the the UK's biggest literary prize, the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award. She received a cheque for £20,000, the first instalment of the £60,000 award, at an evening presentation at the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle on Tuesday March 11th. Julia commented:
"I am delighted to win this award as it buys me the invaluable space and time to relax and reflect on my writing. As a consequence of the wonderful endorsement of my work and the feeling of value that winning this award gives me, I feel that I now have the permission to concentrate on my writing."
And the following day she added in her online diary:
"My award is overwhelmingly generous. It's like being given a wage to be yourself ... it's a kind of fantasy that never usually happens."
Val McDermid, crime novelist, was one of the judges:
"The greatest satisfaction of judging an award such as the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award is to find a winner as worthy as Julia Darling. Julia's writing speaks for itself - it's fresh, adventurous and restless in its search for constant development.
"The bonus is Julia herself. Few writers can have put as much back into her community as she has, and while this award is judged purely on the quality of the work submitted, I know many people will also see it as a well-deserved tribute to the hard work she's done in supporting other writers."
The Northern Rock Foundation created the Award in 2001 with the aim of nurturing and developing the considerable writing talent in the North East. Over a five-year period three writers will receive £60,000 each, making the total prize fund of £180,000 the UK's biggest literary prize fund: the first winner of the award in 2002 was the poet, Anne Stevenson.
The judges for this year's Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award were David Almond, Simon Armitage, Jackie Kay, Robert McCrum and Val McDermid. The panel was chaired by Fiona Ellis, director of The Northern Rock Foundation.
Created by Julia Darling and Cornwell Internet. |
Last updated on 29th June 2005 by Roger Cornwell.
|