The Shortlist Sessions

We're kicking off 2026 with something special: introducing the Writers' Prize shortlisted writers. Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you closer to these brilliant voices, sharing readings from the work that made our shortlist. Each writer has carved out their own unique space on the page – prepare to be impressed!

First up we have Javaria Akbar and Emma Conally-Barklem.

Javaria Akbar

Javaria Akbar is British Asian freelance food writer and mum of three. She grew up in Bradford to Pakistani immigrant parents but now lives in Surrey. She has a masters in magazine journalism and has contributed to Vice, Refinery29, The Pool, Hyphen, Delish and more, alongside content writing and blogging.

Ingredients

When introvert Imaan is widowed after an arranged marriage, she is forced to come out of her shell and ends up falling for her divorced brother-in-law Veed.

Instagram @curryology

Emma Conally-Barklem

Emma Conally-Barklem is an author, poet and yoga teacher based in Yorkshire. Emma won the Black in White Poetry Prize 2024. She is the author of three pamphlets. She was a core poet for the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Poetry Festival 2025 and a guest on Radio 4’s Front Row. Emma won the First Chapter Award 2025. Yoga Homicide is her first novel.

Yoga Homicide

Three queer modern women, one ancient spiritual practice, who holds the knife? Less Eat, Pray, Love, more watch your back and be careful what you wish for. Spiritual when wearing the right brands, Yoga Homicide is pacy, sexy and ultimately deadly. In a world where you can be anything, be ruthless.

Contact Emma:

Email: emmaliveyoga@gmail.com 

Instagram @emmaliveyoga

We hope you enjoyed listening to our first Shortlist Session writers as much as we did! Next week, we’ll hear from two more.

If you’d like to find out more about how we help writers, do get in touch at info@thebookedit.co.uk, or browse our website for more information on our services. And hit the button below if you want to be informed about the 2026 Writers’ Prize.

Looking Back at 2025

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to look back at the past twelve months at the Book Edit.

Publication News

Pavan Amara has secured a two-book deal with The Borough Press following a three-way auction. Her debut novel Mirror, Mirror – which won our Writers' Prize – will be published in Spring 2027.

Joe Eurell won the CWA Emerging Dagger Award 2025 for his novel Ashland, which won the Writers' Prize in 2023.

Kay Inkle's cli-fi debut novel Overspill was published this year with SRL. Kay was one of our inaugural Book Edit winners and you can read an interview about her path to publication here.

Iqbal Hussain will publish his debut children's book, The Night I Borrowed Time, with Penguin in January 2026. You can read our interview with Iqbal here.

Bren Gosling is publishing his debut novel The Streetsweeper with Troubador Books next spring. Bren was an inaugural Writers’ Prize winner.

Recognition and Awards

Satinder Chohan was announced as a winner of the inaugural RSL Scriptorium Award, which prioritises writers who don't have their own dedicated writing space and who experience barriers to their literary careers.

Emma Connally-Barklem published her poetry collection, Car Office, with Written Off Publishing, and was selected as one of the core poets for the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Bradford in autumn.

Emily Abdeni Holman was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Competition, for her story Yair.

Representation News

Serafina Spicer-Cusack has signed with Sara Langham at David Higham Associates.

The Writers' Prize

This year marked the fifth anniversary of our annual Writers' Prize for underrepresented and unpublished writers and we were so impressed with the standard of entries and the quality of this year’s winners. You can listen to them all here.

This year’s judge, Janice Okoh, has had a fantastic 2025. Her play Three Birds, which won the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, was adapted for the screen BBC3’s hit series Just Act Normal. And her debut novel, Girl Number Eight, is forthcoming from Penguin (US) and HarperCollins (UK) in 2027, and she's now represented by Madeline Milburn.

The Story Within

I developed a new course this year, The Story Within, delivered both in person and online. The course is aimed at those who have been writing for a while but may have lost their confidence or taken a prolonged break from writing and want to find their way back in. It's all about connecting back to the why of writing – your motivation, the reasons it originally ignited you, and how you can begin to build it back into your life through incremental habits. The response has been lovely, and I'll be announcing more dates for 2026 soon.

Finally, I was delighted to be asked to be a guest on Hannah Begbie's podcast about writing and the publishing industry. I'll be honest – I was ridiculously nervous beforehand! There's something about being on the other side of the conversation that had me second-guessing everything. But Hannah (brilliant novelist and all-round legend) made it a joy.

We talked about writing courses, barriers to entry, the importance of paying attention and finding your voice, and more. I remembered why I love this work so much.

Huge thanks to Hannah for having me. If you haven't checked out her podcast or Substack yet, do!

Looking Ahead

As we move into 2026, I'm excited about the new projects brewing, the manuscripts in progress, and the writers I haven't met yet. If you're thinking about working with us – whether that's book coaching, developmental editing, or finding your way onto our mentoring programme – do get in touch. We offer a very personal, tailored approach for each client, and we'd love to hear about your project.

Here's to another year of stories, breakthroughs, and celebrating this brilliant community.

Our 2025 Prize Winners: Read Their Work & Watch the Showcase

Last week we celebrated the eight winners of The Book Edit Writers' Prize 2025 at our online showcase, and what an inspiring evening it was.

Judged by acclaimed author Janice Okoh, this year's winners represent exceptional storytelling from voices traditionally underrepresented in UK publishing. Their work took us from 1990s Manchester to Ho Chi Minh City, exploring themes of identity, immigration, belonging and love with freshness and originality. Special thanks goes to Janice for her impeccable judging, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone for her wonderful rehearsing and hosting, and to all our winners.

The 2025 Winners

• A Handful of Grain by Sudhana Singh

• Bánh Meet Cute by Sophie Yan Yee Lau

• Becoming ‘K. J. Miller’ by Uduak-Abasi Ekong

• Fearfully, Wonderfully by Summer Kendrick

• Get a Life, Sean Paulson by Louise Tolmie

• Roots by Kirsty Purnell

• The Cursed Detective by Phil Callaghan

• Witness We Give by M.H. Dookhun

We're delighted to share that you can now read all eight winning entries in our online anthology and watch the full showcase recording right here on The Book Edit website.

Read the anthology here

Watch the showcase here

Congratulations to all our wonderful winners. We hope you enjoy discovering their stories as much as we have.

2025 Book Edit Writers' Prize Winners!

We are delighted to announce the winners of 2025’s Writers’ Prize. Drum roll, please…the winners are:

• A Handful of Grain by Sudhana Singh

• Bánh Meet Cute by Sophie Yan Yee Lau

• Becoming K. J. Miller by Uduak-Abasi Ekong

• Fearfully, Wonderfully by Summer Kendrick

• Get a Life, Sean Paulson by Louise Tolmie

• Roots by Kirsty Purnell

• The Cursed Detective by Phil Callaghan

• Witness We Give by Hussein Dookhun

These eight fabulous winners will go on to read at an online showcase for invited industry guests tonight and an anthology of their winning entries and a recording of the event will subsequently be published on The Book Edit website.

Judged this year by acclaimed author Janice Okoh, the standard of entries has been outstanding. Speaking of judging the prize, Janice said: ‘Agents say they know they're reading something great by just the opening line. I got chills reading some of the winners.' We couldn’t agree more!

2025 Writers’ Prize Judge Janice Okoh

With enormous thanks to Janice for her brilliant judging this year. And huge congratulations to all our winners. We can’t wait to hear them read at the showcase!

Watch this space for more about the authors, their novels and future writing careers.

Announcing the 2025 Book Edit Writers' Prize Shortlist!

We’re thrilled to announce the shortlist for 2025’s Book Edit Writers’ Prize, judged this year by acclaimed author Janice Okoh.

These sixteen exceptional novels were selected from a longlist of twenty-four, representing outstanding storytelling and demonstrating the breadth of talent this year.

THE SHORTLISTED WRITERS AND THEIR NOVELS ARE:

• A Handful of Grain by Sudhana Singh

• Bánh Meet Cute by Sophie Yan Yee Lau

• Becoming K. J. Miller by Uduak-Abasi Ekong

• City of Storytellers by Shehrazade Zafar-Arif

• Fearfully, Wonderfully by Summer Kendrick

• Get a Life, Sean Paulson by Louise Tolmie

• Infection by Kiah Olowu

• Ingredients by Javaria Akbar

• Iniono by Esohe Uwadiae

• Roots by Kirsty Purnell

• Spirit of Endeavour by Matthew Fothergill

• The Cursed Detective by Phil Callaghan

• Unwritten Ending by Kiah Simpson

• When the Cherry Blossom Falls by Susannah Jong-Sook Bond

• Witness We Give by Hussein Dookhun

• Yoga Homicide by Emma Conally-Barklem

The final winners will be announced next week ahead of a special online showcase on 26 November, where they will read from their work to invited industry guests. The winning entries will also be published in an online anthology following the showcase.

Congratulations to all our shortlisted and longlisted writers – what an achievement!