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This year marked the fifth anniversary of our annual Writers' Prize for underrepresented and unpublished writers and we were so impressed with the standard of entries and the quality of this year’s winners.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