As far as I can see at this point, literary prizes are in a mess, and a lot of the mess comes from the fact that they still insist on defining their terms more around writers than writing.

I think it would be far more inspiring if, instead of having a massive furore about this prize or that prize every few months, to the increasing detriment of the literature that prizes are supposed to celebrate, we had a serious conversation about how to do prizes better.

For me, I’d prefer it if we moved away from prizes and towards more of a grant kind of concept.

Picture this: every year six or seven writers at various stages of their career and writing across various different modes are given a generous grant not for the work they have already done, but for a project that will occupy them for the next two years.

There would be no shortlist, no bet-taking, no “favourites” and no-one “snubbed” or “ignored”. Publishers would not be asked to “enter” anyone. Every year the recipients would be announced and that would be it.

The idea would be that the grant is to produce a work entirely liberated from commercial considerations. It would, effectively, be in place of an advance. The message would be: we want to see what our very best writers produce when given total freedom.

Those works would then be highly anticipated, and their creation would foster in others a sense that boundaries can be pushed and new things tried.

Eligibility criteria would be that you live in the UK and have a UK publisher. What language you work in, where you were born, and whether you have stable or even legal migration status would all be irrelevant.

Here’s the extra bit though: every recipient of a grant would be expected to mentor an unpublished writer for the period they are working on the project they intend to use the grant money for.

These “mentees” would also in effect be recipients of an award. They would be selected from entrants at the same time as the main grant recipients were selected. They would be regarded as names to keep an eye on, the writers of the future.

In this way, the major UK literary prize (which would not really be a prize) would enshrine certain key literary principles, and celebrate them every year:

That we celebrate a writer’s whole body of work and, based on that body of work, encourage them not to entrench and repeat themselves but to strike out boldly with no fear of financial consequences...

...and that the future generation of writers draws on the wisdom, experience, and indeed emotional support of a previous generation for strength, courage, and technical development.

We do not need to have prizes that don’t work and which, intentionally or otherwise, foster division and bitterness in the small world of writing and publishing. We can imagine something better and we can make sure that community is at the heart of it.

Oh, and I should add, since I am running the show here: black tie events, “dinners”, etc would all be expressly forbidden.