The Charles Pick Fellowship
The Charles Pick Fellowship is dedicated to the memory of the distinguished publisher and literary agent, Charles Pick, whose career began in 1933 and continued until shortly before his death in January 2000. He encouraged young writers at the start of their careers with introductions to other writers and practical and financial help. The Fellowship seeks to continue this spirit of encouragement by giving support to the work of a new and, as yet, unpublished writer of fictional or non-fictional prose. Its purpose is to give promising writers time to devote to the development of his/her talents. The Fellowship will be for six months, starting on 1 September. The award is £10,000.
Fellowship Winners 2009
Birgit Larsson is Swedish and Icelandic but has spent her life moving between Europe and the US. Most recently, she has made her home in New York City. She has degrees in English literature from Harvard and the University of Edinburgh where she developed interests in southern gothic, public theatre projects, and oral storytelling traditions. She worked as an Assistant Editor at W.W. Norton before becoming a community outreach coordinator and certified mediator at a non-profit in New York.
During the last two years she has focused on community building projects that are dialogue driven and has specialized in Restorative Justice and youth work. She has facilitated 250 cases involving youth; families in-crisis; and victims and offenders in Brooklyn, New York. Her nights and early mornings have been spent working on a collection of darkly absurd stories that take place in Sweden and Iceland, which she is now finishing in Norwich.
Simi Awosika practiced as a journalist in
