REACHING new audiences can be a hard slog for songwriters and spoken word artists, but a new initiative by Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Culture Matters might ease that burden a little.

The new Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award, open to everyone regardless of trade union membership, aims to encourage songwriters and spoken-word performers to write material meaningful to working-class people and communities and to encourage those communities to engage more with songwriting and spoken word.

There's a £100 cash prize for each of the top five entries to be judged by CWU and Culture Matters, with the winners performing at the CWU conference in Bournemouth in April.