New 9th Art Award: Submission Details announced

Graphic Scotland and the Edinburgh International Book Festival have announced that submissions are now open for the inaugural 9th Art Award for graphic fiction.

The 9th Art Award will choose the best work of graphic literature originally written and published in English between May 2012 and July 2013, from anywhere in the world.
Judging the prize will be:

• graphic fiction historian Paul Gravett
• acclaimed arts critic and writer Hannah McGill
• Freight Press publisher Adrian Searle
• Costa award-winning writer of Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes Mary Talbot

A casting vote will be given to Graphic Scotland chair John McShane in the event of a tie. The award will be presented during an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

Graphic Scotland Co-Director Gordon Robertson believes the prize could become a fixture on the international arts scene, and as important to sequential art as the Man Booker Prize is to literary fiction. “The 9th Art Award will be a significant annual award for recognition of excellence in the field of Graphic Literature," he says. "Its introduction as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival recognises graphic literature's rightful status as an art form.”

Graphic Scotland is an independent community interest company aiming to bring together Scottish-based writers, artists and publishers in international collaborations to create diverse and innovative new graphic fiction.

Every August, Charlotte Square Gardens in the heart of historic Edinburgh, the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, becomes the home to the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Founded in 1983, the Book Festival is the largest festival of its kind in the world and has become a platform for audiences to debate with leading thinkers from the worlds of science, politics, business, economics and journalism as well as literature.

This year, from 10 - 26 August, the Book Festival will play host to authors, playwrights, poets, politicians, journalists and thinkers from around the world. Over 200,000 visitors will come to join the debate, meet the authors, browse the bookshops or just enjoy an ice cream in the tranquil setting of the beautiful gardens. To complement the adult programme there is a full children’s programme with events, workshops and debates for every age from toddler to teenager.

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, says of the 9th Art Award: “We have featured graphic novel authors and illustrators in our programme at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for a number of years now and I believe that this new Award will give the genre the wider recognition that it deserves.”

• The deadline for entries is 31st July 2013.
More details: www.9thartfestival.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/9thartfestival
Twitter: @9thArtAward