New literary prize to award $100, 000 for yet-to-be written book

A new literary prize called ‘Nine Dots Prize’, worth $100, 000 and the promise of a publishing deal from Cambridge University Press is open for entries.  The award, which is open to authors worldwide, requires submission of a 3, 000 word essay answering the question: “Are digital technologies making politics possible?” The submission will form […]

A new literary prize called ‘Nine Dots Prize’, worth $100, 000 and the promise of a publishing deal from Cambridge University Press is open for entries. 

The award, which is open to authors worldwide, requires submission of a 3, 000 word essay answering the question: “Are digital technologies making politics possible?” The submission will form the basis for a book, to be published by Cambridge University Press. An outline of how the essay will be expanded into a 30, 000 to 40, 000-word book is also required.

The organisers said the winner will be decided by an anonymous panel of 12 judges consisting of “distinguished academics, authors, journalists and thinkers.” The panel is to be chaired by Professor Simon Goldhill, director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at Cambridge University in the U.K.

“This is an incredibly exciting and unique opportunity for thinkers to table big ideas that have the potential to change the world,” said Goldhill. “The board will be looking for entries that display originality in everything from the ideas put forward to the ways in which those ideas are communicated. Respondents are entirely free to critique, agree or disagree with, or reject the premise of the question, but they must engage with it fully and insightfully.”

The winner will be announced in May 2017 and their book will be published in May 2018.

The $100,000 prize is funded by the Kadas Prize Foundation, an English charity that seeks to stimulate research around the social sciences.