What follows is an open letter to @writerstrust and @RBC on the #BronwenWallaceAward age cap, which makes only writers under 35 eligible for the award. It's not a perfect critique, but I hope it conveys an essential concern that I have and that I have heard others share.

1/16

I have also sent this letter to the Program Manager for the Bronwen Wallace Award. If you would like to do the same, please feel free to borrow anything you want from the text below, as these ideas have not originated from any one person.

2/16

I want to start this letter by saying that I admire what the Bronwen Wallace Award does. For writers who are eligible, and who win, it is a great service to their careers to receive the financial support and institutional credibility that the award offers.

3/16

The award often opens doorways to book deals and other artistic accomplishments. Furthermore, it is a fitting tribute to the memory of a writer departed too soon.

4/16

However, the very fact that the award is instrumental to the success of so many emerging writers means that it is especially important that access to this award be fair. Obviously, the Writers Trust is aware of this.

5/16

It has conscientiously ensured that the award is free to enter, for example, so as not to present an immediate economic barrier. Yet there remains one glaringly inequitable eligibility criterion attached to this award: the age cap.

6/16

Many writers begin their careers later in life, but particularly writers who belong to communities that are marginalized or oppressed. Writers from families with low incomes often have to work more, or spend extra time caring for themselves or loved ones.

7/16

People from BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, disability, and other marginalized communities, and/or women, are disproportionately likely to have lower incomes and to experience socioeconomic and other barriers to participating fully in the literary community.

8/16

This means that marginalized people are often prevented from starting their careers as early in life as those who are more privileged. Having an age cap means that all of these writers who must start their careers later are excluded from potentially receiving support.

9/16

The Bronwen Wallace Award is far from the only resource for emerging writers that has an age cap, which makes the situation all the worse for emerging writers over the age of 35.

10/16

Furthermore, the fact that the Bronwen Wallace Award is so prominent and well-regarded in the literary industry means that it has the potential to set trends for other emerging writer resources.

11/16

If the Writers Trust were to remove the age cap, thereby acknowledging older emerging writers and the marginalized communities that they often represent, it is likely that many other emerging writer opportunities would follow suit.

12/16

The Writers Trust claims to wish to support diversity and inclusivity, and during her life Bronwen Wallace was devoted to improving the lives of women and working-class people, but the age cap on the Bronwen Wallace Award has the opposite effect.

13/16

How does the Writers Trust continue to justify this practice and will they consider changing it?

I will note that I am not asking as a personally interested party. I am fortunate to be eligible to apply for the award.

14/16

But I know friends, colleagues, and many other talented writers who did not have that luck, yet are every bit as deserving as young writers of having the chance for their work to be championed as they emerge.

15/16

All of us would benefit from a more radiant expanse of the spectrum of human life being prominently represented in our literature, so I thank you if you have taken the time to read this, and I wonder at the possibility of seeing a change in the future.

16/16