BGTW Travel Writing Competition goes annual

Want to be a travel writer?

The British Guild of Travel Writers has teamed up with Traveller magazine for a second year to encourage new travel writing talent with a competition aimed at new writers.

The Guild (www.bgtw.org), founded in 1960, is the premier professional association for bona-fide journalists, editors, photographers, and radio and film broadcasters working in the travel field.

"Whether you’re an aspiring professional travel writer, or an enthusiastic writing traveller who knows how to bring a destination to life through your words, we want to foster new talent and encourage you to enter," says the Guild’s spokeswoman, Sarah Monaghan. "Last year’s competition attracted more than 200 entries and the judges were highly impressed with the overall standard of writing and the breadth of destinations covered. We’re really looking forward to reading this year’s contributions."

The competition

The competition is open to all writers aged over 18 who have not been published in the travel field. Entrants should submit an 800-word article on the theme of ‘Portrait of a City’.

Traveller is recognized as the UK’s most literary travel magazine, and editor Amy Sohanpaul has this advice for entrants: "Portrait of a City should be an impressionistic pen-portrait, written as an evocative first-person narrative (with a plot and an ending), not a factual destination guide.

"Write from your personal point of view, conveying your direct experience. Tell us what it feels like to be there, how it sounds and smells. Introduce local people, through quotes, conversations and interactions. We look for vividness, personal reflection, action, humour, respect for local cultures, adventure and authenticity."

The prizes

1. The first prize offers an intensive exploration of your writing potential in an exciting destination. Courtesy of Travellers’ Tales, the UK’s leading training agency for travel writing and travel photography, the winner will enjoy a four-day travel writing holiday in one of the agency’s inspiring locations, which include the colourful souks of Marrakech, the vibrant streets of Istanbul or the flamboyant Moorish cities of Andalucia.
   
   You will discover the location while practising your writing skills with a small group of fellow writers under expert professional tutors, including Jonathan Lorie, former editor of Traveller and founder of the Travellers’ Tales Festival (the next one takes place in London at the Royal Geographical Society headquarters in October 2011). See www.travellerstales.org.
2. Second prize, courtesy of WEXAS – The Traveller’s Club, and valid until 31 December 2011, is two CityJet flight tickets, from City Airport to one of the following destinations: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brive, Deauville, Dublin, Dundee, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Hamburg, Jersey, Luxembourg, Manchester, Nantes, Paris and Rotterdam. See www.wexas.com.
3. Third prize is the winner’s selection of 10 travel guides from leading guidebook publisher Frommer’s. See www.frommers.com.
   

Prize giving

The winners will be announced in February at a prize ceremony at a leading London hotel, during the launch of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Yearbook 2011, attended by hundreds of the UK’s top travel writers, photographers and travel industry representatives. The winning entry will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of Traveller and on the Guild website, www.bgtw.org.

The judges

The competition will be judged by:

• Sarah Monaghan edits Gabon Magazine and won the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Trade and Tourism Award in 2007.
• Amy Sohanpaul is the editor of Traveller and The Travellers’ Handbook, and a past judge of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards.
• Jonathan Lorie is director of Travellers’ Tales and the Travellers’ Tales Festival, and a past editor of The Traveller’s Handbook.
• William Gray is a wildlife and family travel specialist and runner-up for BGTW Travel Writer of the Year 2009.

The sponsors

• The British Guild of Travel Writers
• Traveller magazine
• Travellers’ Tales
• WEXAS – The Traveller’s Club
• CityJet
• Frommer’s

How to enter

Entries may be posted or emailed. To preserve anonymity when judging, you must not write your name on the article itself. Please follow these instructions:

• Email entries should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject line ‘Guild Travel Writing Competition’. Your entry should be a Word document attachment, with a two-word tagline but without your name and address. A separate Word document should be attached giving the two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
• Postal entries should be sent to BGTW Secretariat, 26 Needwood House, Woodberry Down, London, N4 2TN. Do not put your name and address on the article, but give it a two-word tagline. On a separate piece of paper, write this two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.

Terms and conditions

1. The competition is open to all writers over 18, both UK and non-UK residents, other than current employees, or regular contributors, or their immediate families, of the BGTW, Traveller, Bradt Travel Guides, Travellers’ Tales and Stanfords. No purchase is necessary. By entering the competition, participants agree that their name and place of residence may be released if they win a prize; that should they win the competition, their name and likeness may be used by the sponsors for pre-arranged promotional purposes.
2. Writers must be unpublished in the field of travel writing. This means never having been paid for any piece of travel writing that has appeared in print or on the internet.
3. One entry per person. Entries cannot be acknowledged or returned.
4. The article must be 800 words and submitted with single-line spacing in 12-point font. If submitted on paper, it should be printed on one side only, on A4 paper.
5. Entries may be posted or emailed. To preserve anonymity when judging, you must not write your name on the article itself. Please follow these instructions:
   • Email entries should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject line ‘Guild Travel Writing Competition’. Your entry should be a Word document attachment, with a two-word tagline but without your name and address. A separate Word document should be attached giving the two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
   • Postal entries should be sent to BGTW Secretariat, 26 Needwood House, Woodberry Down, London, N4 2TN. Do not put your name and address on the article, but give it a two-word tagline. On a separate piece of paper, write this two-word tagline and your contact details, including email address and telephone number.
6. Your details may be shared with the competition partners unless otherwise requested by you on the sheet of paper or email containing your contact details.
7. All entries must be received by the closing date of 31 December 2010.
8. Your entry must not have been entered in any other competition or have previously been published either in whole or in part.
9. The article must be the original work of the entrant who must be the sole copyright holder.
10. The writers of the winning entries agree, by entering the competition, that Traveller and BGTW shall have the exclusive right to first publication in print and online format.
11. There is no cash alternative and prizes will not be transferable. For the first prize, flights to and from Istanbul are at the winner’s expense.
12. Once the winners are announced in February 2011, entrants other than the winners may use their pieces in whatever way they choose.
13. The judges’ opinion is final. No correspondence will be entered into.