Under embargo until: 00.01hrs Monday 2 July 2007

Journalists invited to submit social policy book proposals for two £50,000 JRF Fellowship awards

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is inviting proposals for two Journalist Fellowship £50,000 bursaries. These enable experienced journalists to take time out from their pressurised, deadline driven schedules to write a book about social policy. Proposals are being invited from print, web and broadcast journalists working for national, specialist and regional media outlets, including on a freelance basis.

The JRF Journalist Fellowships are awarded every two years and have given rise to a series of successful and authoritative books. Writers already awarded bursaries include Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Madeleine Bunting, Polly Ghazi, Jeremy Laurence, Nicholas Schoon, Christian Wolmar and, most recently, Richard Tomlinson.

Outline book proposals are expected to reflect one or more of the themes that are of greatest concern to the Foundation, which is one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK. Its core interests are in poverty and place but the JRF is also currently supporting work on social care, immigration and inclusion, parenting, alcohol and independent living. Proposals can also be informed by emerging work to identify and define today’s social evils.

Fellowships can be used to cover full-time work on a book for a year, or on a part-time basis for up to two years. The successful applicants are normally expected to find their own, commercial publisher.

The closing date for applications is 24 September 2007. Interviews with a selection panel including established journalists will take place in London on 16 October 2007.

JRF Director Julia Unwin said, “The Journalist Fellowships aim to reach a wider audience and influence policy makers through a discrete body of work that has a life beyond short-term media coverage. So far the scheme has led to seven timely and stimulating books that deal in an original way with issues linked to the Foundation's long-term interest in tackling social disadvantage."

Notes to Editors

1. The following books have been published so far:
   • Christian Wolmar - Forgotten children: The secret abuse of children's homes (2000, Vision)
   • Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - Mixed feelings: The complex lives of mixed-race Britons (2001, Women's Press)
   • Nicholas Schoon - The Chosen City (2001, Spon Press)
   • Jeremy Laurence - Pure madness: How fear drives the mental health system (2003, Routledge)
   • Polly Ghazi - The 24-hour family: A parent's guide to work-life balance (2003, The Women's Press Ltd)
   • Madeleine Bunting - Willing slaves: How the overwork culture is ruining our lives (2004, Harper Collins)
   • Richard Tomlinson - Late Shift: The Death of Retirement (2007, Methuen)
2. A further book, by Connie St Louis, Raising Ham: How to raise a black son is almost complete.
3. More background information is available.
4. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation supports a research and development programme that seeks to understand the causes of social difficulties and explore ways of overcoming them.

Issued by Nasreen Memon, JRF Head of Media Relations: 01904 615 919 / 020 7278 9665 nasreen.memon@jrf.org.uk