Spotlight on the 2023 Writers' Prize Shortlisted Novelists

Happy 2024!

We’re delighted to be kicking off the year with a spotlight on our Book Edit Writers’ Prize Shortlisted Novelists.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring the work of these writers, with a link to a reading from their shortlisted entry. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

First up, we have Bianca Aye and Grayson Anderson.

Bianca Aye is a British-Burmese (or Myanmarese) writer, raised on eighties action films and whodunits in the North of England. She has lived in London for the past decade, and in 2022 she attended the HarperCollins Author Academy for fiction. When she isn’t writing YA Fantasy or contemporary RomComs, Bianca takes long walks to fix plot-holes and creates wonderful disasters in the kitchen. Contact Bianca on: https://www.instagram.com/bmayewrites/

https://www.tiktok.com/@bianca.767

The City of Stolen Ether  

Maya, a mixed-race teen, returns to a secret, magical London to investigate her grandmother’s mysterious death. She sneaks around its underworld until a notorious crime syndicate starts hunting her. Accompanied by a motley crew of allies (and a boy she hates), Maya infiltrates an elite, dangerous magical school, and uncovers a sinister conspiracy. To expose the truth, she devises a scheme. But with enemies everywhere, one misstep could make her the syndicate’s next victim, or their new favourite weapon.

Grayson Anderson is a British born Jamaican author and poet. Raised in South London, he has spent most of his life writing. His catalogue of work contains songs, poetry, a science fiction trilogy, and an opinion-based non-fiction book relating to the idiosyncrasies of gender in society. He considers himself a student of humanity, culture, and nature. He can be contacted on twitter: Grayson Anderson@Capprona or email: Grayson.anderson.e006@gmail.com.

Wayne’s Night Out

Gavin, his brother, Wayne, and their two friends have pre-wedding night drinks in their old haunts around South London. All four are hiding key elements of their life. Shame. Despair. Infidelity. And in Wayne’s case, doubt. This night, each of the four are forced to face their dilemmas whilst in the face of their peers. None more so than Wayne. His choices have ramifications that affect them all. This is the first in a tetralogy.  

Congratulations, Bianca and Grayson! We hope you enjoyed their readings as much as we did.

Next week, we’ll hear from two more shortlisted writers so watch this space!

Want to find our more about what we offer at the Book Edit? Hit the button below and we will get back to you with more information.

One week left to submit!

With just seven days left to send us your Writers’ Prize submissions, what better way to encourage you than to share news of one of last year’s longlisted writers, Hamish Morjaria?

Pan Macmillan India have acquired Hamish’s ‘heart-stopping thriller trilogy, The Harveen Gill Mysteries in a pre-empt. His first book, The Muziris Empire, which he submitted for the prize last year, will be published in summer 2024.

Speaking of his involvement with the Book Edit prize last year, Hamish said “The journey to publication can be a difficult one, perhaps even more so for writers who come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Entering and being long listed for The Book Edit Writers’ Prize in 2022 was an important step for me. The kind words from Emily about The Muziris Empire were a welcome boost as I navigated the querying process.”

Congratulations, Hamish! We can’t wait to see your books in print!

And for those of you inspired by Hamish’s journey, why not see where submitting to this year’s prize might take you?

Spotlight on some of last year's winners of the Book Edit Writers' Prize

With just under three weeks left until The Book Edit Writers’ Prize deadline, we wanted to profile some of the brilliant winners of last year's prize to inspire submissions to the competition…

2021 Writers’ Prize winner, author Bren Gosling

Bren Gosling was one of last year’s winners with his novel The Street Sweeper. Since then, his new play ‘Proud’ has had a sell-out run at the King’s Head Theatre, London. The play, inspired by The Street Sweeper, is a powerful new drama focusing on a queer love story, tackling contemporary themes of race, trauma, religion, and sexuality. His play, ‘Moment of Grace’ also ran this summer at the Hope theatre in London and tells the story of Princess Diana’s famous visit to the UK’s first HIV/AIDS ward 35 years ago.

2021 Writers’ Prize winner Hannah Hoare’s debut novel Parahumanity

Bren has said that: “Winning The Book Edit Prize gave me the boost in confidence every writer needs once in a while to just keep going.”

Meanwhile, Hannah Hoare, another of 2021’s winners, had her novel Parahumanity published on 19th August 2022 by Wild Wolf Publishing. The book envisions a dystopian future where both science and religion have fallen into disrepute, following semi-feral 17-year-old Katrina as she uncovers the truth.

Hannah has said that: "Winning the Book Edit Writers' Prize did more than give me confidence as a writer: it connected me with a wonderful group of fellow writers who, nine months on, are still in touch to celebrate our successes."

Another 2021 Book Edit Writers’ Prize winner, Professor Malachi McIntosh, will publish a ground-breaking group biography of the Caribbean Artists Movement with Faber in 2023. Speaking of the Writers’ Prize, Malachi said “My confidence in my creative writing is a constant seesaw. Winning the Writer’s Prize came at a time when it felt like my fiction might never get much recognition. It really reinvigorated my faith and introduced me to some fantastic fellow writers. I can’t recommend participation highly enough.”

2021 Writers’ Prize winner , author Professor Malachi McIntosh

And since being one of the 2021 prize’s winners, Mich Maroney launched a literary magazine, Swerve, this summer in Ireland. The magazine showcases emerging writers and artists from Cork and issue 1 is out now. Swerve aims to publish new and emerging writing but another, equally important, ambition is to publish works in translation.

If you want to follow in these brilliant winners’ footsteps, send your work to The Book Edit by submitting to The Book Edit Writers’ Prize, this year judged by acclaimed author Elizabeth Chakrabarty.

Aimed at supporting talented writers who might not otherwise have access to the industry, the prize is open to unpublished British and/or UK-based novelists from communities and backgrounds currently underrepresented in British publishing. You can see the full competition rules and details here. We can’t wait to see who will be next to join our list of writers whose work we have supported and continue to champion. The deadline for submissions is 22nd October 2022.

Author Mich Maroney on her experience of winning the 2021 Writers’ Prize

The 2022 Book Edit Writers' Prize Launches Today

We are delighted to announce the launch today of The Book Edit’s Writers’ Prize 2022, which this year will be judged by author Elizabeth Chakrabarty.

Aiming to support talented writers who might not otherwise have access to the industry, The Book Edit’s Writers’ Prize is a writing competition for unpublished British and/or UK-based novelists from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in UK publishing.

The 2022 Book Edit Writers’ Prize Judge, Elizabeth Chakrabarty. Photo by Jason Keith.

Eight winners will have the chance to read their work at a live Zoom showcase event in front of industry professionals and The Book Edit’s contacts. After the event, an anthology of the readings will be published on The Book Edit’s website.

"Winning the Book Edit Writers' Prize did more than give me confidence as a writer: it connected me with a wonderful group of fellow writers who, nine months on, are still in touch to celebrate our successes." 2021 winner Hannah Hoare, author of Parahumanity, Wild Wolf Publishing.

Winners will have the opportunity to rehearse and train for the showcase event and everyone who enters will receive advice on other options including mentoring, courses and editing.

Completely free to enter, it’s a competition no-one can lose! For full competition details, judges, dates and submission guidelines follow this link or click on the button below.

We can’t wait to read your submissions! Good luck!