The Genesis Foundation and Jewish Book Week (JBW) announce a new programme to champion and support emerging writers in the UK, which is open to applications with immediate effect.

The Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers’ Programme will offer bursaries and mentorship to ten emerging writers over 18 years of age, of any background, writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

The ten selected writers will be offered mentoring from a group of established writers, who have participated in the JBW Programme previously, including Tracy Chevalier, Sam Leith and George Szirtes.

The ten writers will also be offered peer support sessions, opportunities to speak at future JBW events and bursaries of up to £1,500 to complete research and writing. Applications are now open and for the inaugural year writers will be asked to work on projects with the theme of “Beginnings.” The bursaries will be distributed from July and an event will be held at JBW’s 70^th anniversary festival in March 2022.

Claudia Rubenstein, Director, Jewish Book Week, said:

“As Jewish Book Week enters its 70th year, we are delighted to be working with the Genesis Foundation in offering mentorship and support to emerging writers. Our annual festival celebrates the wealth and diversity of writing talent within the Jewish community, and this new programme seeks to draw on the expertise of our festival speakers to foster and develop the careers of new writers from all backgrounds. We are tremendously excited to discover the poets, authors and journalists who will form the Genesis Emerging Writers cohort of 2021.”

John Studzinski CBE, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:

“We are thrilled to partner with Jewish Book Week on this special project in our 20th anniversary year. It goes to the heart of what we have been doing for two decades: supporting and nurturing creative and emerging talent. Jewish Book Week provides a powerful intellectual framework for the programme. As a devout Christian, I am delighted to be working within the parameters of the Abrahamic faiths to promote culture and creativity. It highlights one of the UK’s great strengths – literature and the spoken word – which we must keep encouraging and developing.”