The master chronicler of our age, John le Carré’s work has come to define not only the best of spy fiction, but the very colour of our times. We’ll be looking for a writer whose work demonstrates many of the qualities that were important to John le Carré – we want to find compelling storytelling and political engagement; we’ll be searching for an exciting voice that pushes at or breaks boundaries.

This scholarship is part of The Breakthrough Writers’ Programme, a major new outreach programme which offers opportunities to under-represented writers. We are keen to promote diversity in our student groups and to enable talented writers to join our courses who we might not otherwise have heard from.

The Writing Your Novel three-month online course is designed to enable people to take part from anywhere in the world. It features direct input from our literary agent team and top publishers.

If you have the desire to write, a great idea and the ambition to want to raise your writing game – and if you’re without the financial means to attend a Curtis Brown Creative course, this opportunity is for you.

We are grateful to the Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency for providing this scholarship, and to the family of John le Carré for their support in establishing it.

Find out more here

Deadline: Sunday 8 August 2021