The prestigious annual Saboteur Awards are appealing for funding help after losing their Arts Council grant for their 2020 awards ceremony. The indie lit awards, organised by Sabotage Reviews, have launched a £4,000 Crowdfunder appeal. Sabotage Reviews, which was founded in 2010, said: “The Saboteur Awards festival, a sibling project to the website itself, is a staple element of the UK's independent literary scene.

“Year upon year, the festival brings together writers, performers and publishers from a span of backgrounds and genres to celebrate their personal achievements from the last twelve months in the industry. Through a round of public votes - wherein members of the public can nominate in a series of literary-themed categories - through to the shortlisted voting - where the top nominees from the first round of voting are brought together in a final list - the awards element of the festival prides itself on putting forward winners chosen by the public, rather than by a board of peers.

“Alongside the awards themselves, the daytime event for the Saboteur Awards festival 2020 will consist of literary panels discussing poetry, podcasts and the future of writing, alongside a series of poetry performances throughout the day. These performances will be tackling subjects such as living with a severe disability all the way through to gender transitioning, and early menopause. In our selection process for the daytime event, we have endeavoured to be as diverse as possible.

“To ensure that these events can indeed take place for another year, we're reaching out to those who have supported us, those who continue to support us, and those who might become new friends of Sabotage through this process, to ask for some assistance. It is with disappointment that we announce we've been turned down for funding for the 2020 awards ceremony, although we are heartily determined to re-apply, and take steps to see that this event goes full steam ahead all the same!”

There’s a roll-call of previous Saboteur award winners here. Last year Torbay poetry festival and publishers The Poetry Business also lost their Arts Council funding.