The 1st of July sees the official launch of the 2012 Crashaw Prize for Poetry and The Scott Prize for Short Stories. Since 2008, these prizes have launched the careers of twenty-four debut writers and helped to highlight scores of others shortlisted for the highly-respected awards.

“Salt’s prizes form an ongoing commitment to discovering and nurturing debut authors,” says Jen Hamilton-Emery. “Our winners, even our shortlisted authors, have often gone on to secure further awards and develop exciting careers sometimes with Salt, sometimes with large corporate publishers — our prizes are the right platform for building an international reputation, for getting the right kind of attention for your work.”

Scott Prize winner Tom Vowler won the Readers’ Prize in the 2011 Edge Hill Award, his new novel will be published by Headline. Crashaw Prize winner Kaddy Benyon has been selected as a Granta New Poet.

This year, changes to both literary prizes will see the winners each receive £1,000, as well as being published by Salt. The Scott Prize remains a unique award, dedicated to the publication of a first full-length collection of short stories by a single author. The prizes open their doors to submissions from eligible writers for just four months, closing on the 31st of October.

“In 2012, we’ll focus on two truly gifted writers and give them the editorial, marketing, publicity and design support to get them the attention they deserve,” says Chris Hamilton-Emery. “We want to find that one collection of poems and that one collection of short stories that provide an exceptional reading experience.”

Now in its twelfth year as a literary publisher, Salt has developed a considerable reputation as a publisher of the best new writing from many parts of the world, winning an American Book Award and the Nielsen Innovation award for its innovative approach to marketing and publicity. Now with over 55,000 Twitter followers, Salt clearly has a very considerable online impact — which it is increasing by 2,500 fans a month.

“The book trade is undergoing a noisy revolution on several fronts, and yet publishers have never been more important in making judgments that offer trusted, culturally valuable choices for readers,” states director Jen Hamilton-Emery. “In a busy world, you have to spend your precious reading time on books that matter. Readers want book choices they can understand and we believe readers trust our judgement.”

Salt is fortunate in having considerable outreach as a literary business, not only through its social media connections, but in its relationships with a global network of booksellers, editors, writers, critics, journalists and designers. What separates Salt out is the clearly passionate nature of these relationships — as Chris Hamilton-Emery says, “Without these crucial people supporting you, a writer of genuine importance can be isolated. That’s one thing the prizes offer the new writer: a chance for connection, connection to other Salt authors, to readers, to this amazing world of books.”

The prize websites and full entry details are at http://thecrashawprize.co.uk/ and http://thescottprize.co.uk

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