W. Somerset Maugham set up a fund in 1947 to enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience of foreign countries. The awards are given for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry.

2020 Winners

• Alex Allison for The Art of the Body (Dialogue Books/Little, Brown)
• Oliver Soden for Michael Tippet: The Biography (Weidenfeld and Nicholson/Orion)
• Roseanne Watt for Moder Dy (Birlinn/Polygon)
• Amrou Al-Kadhi for My Life as a Unicorn (4th Estate)

Entry to the 2021 Awards is now closed

Important information on the 2021 prize.

• Applicants must be a British national, or ordinarily resident in the UK
• Applicants must be under the age of 30 on 30 November 2020
• Submissions must have been first published in the UK in 2020
• Submissions may be poetry, fiction, criticism, biography, history, philosophy, belles-lettres or a travel book. Dramatic works are not eligible
• The prize money must be used for foreign travel 

Charity number 212402