Stratford Literary Festival and The Salariya Book Company launch Debut Children’s Picture Book Prize

Stratford Literary Festival and The Salariya Book Company launch Debut Children’s Picture Book Prize


To mark its 10th anniversary in 2017, the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival is launching a Prize, in partnership with children’s book publisher The Salariya Book Company, to find the next big children’s author/illustrator. The winning story will be published in the UK and the winner or winning team will receive an advance of £5000 against royalties.


The Prize, which will form part of the Festival’s 2017 Sharing Stories Project to encourage reluctant readers and parents to read with their children, is unique in offering guaranteed publication by Scribblers, an imprint of The Salariya Book Company, and is being supported by some of the biggest names in children’s writing and illustration.


The judging panel includes David Salariya, Founder and MD of The Salariya Book Company; Annie Ashworth, Director of The Stratford Literary Festival; the award-winning author/illustrators Nick Butterworth and Sarah McIntyre, who is also the Festival’s Guest Children’s Director for 2017, as well as Tamara Macfarlane, owner of the multi-award-winning Tales on Moon Lane Bookshop and Ashley King, illustrator and bookseller at Waterstones. The winner or winning team will also receive advice and guidance as part of the prize from the children’s literary agent Jodie Hodges of United Agents.

The Stratford Literary Festival/Salariya Book Company Children’s Picture Book Prize 2017 is open to author/illustrators or author and illustrator teams aged 16 and over based in the UK who have not previously been published and distributed online or in bookshops.


The winner will be announced in February 2017, with printed copies available in late Autumn 2017.

‘As a festival, we are passionate about championing new writers and illustrators, and about sowing the seeds of a love of reading at a young age, so a prize seemed the perfect way to do this,’ says Anne Ashworth, Director of the Stratford Literary Festival. ‘We have always been quite ground breaking as a festival, having published a YA novella and run an online interactive story in 148 characters. We also publish a book of winning stories and poems in our creative writing competition each year. This prize, however, will be more ambitious than anything we have done before.’





‘We are very excited to be working with Stratford,’ says David Salariya, founder and managing director of The Salariya Book Company. ‘To the best of our knowledge this is the first time a publisher and a festival have collaborated on a prize, and we are looking forward to seeing some very creative submissions.’

The deadline for entries is Thursday, 12th January 2017 and full details, including rules of entry, can be found at stratlitfest.co.uk/picturebookcomp and at www.salariya.com

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