From Manuscript to Spotlight: Meet Our Book Edit Prize Shortlist

We’re excited to begin 2025 by spotlighting our Book Edit Writers' Prize shortlisted writers.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be introducing you to these writers, and sharing exclusive readings from their shortlisted entries. Each voice brings something fresh to the page – we can't wait for you to discover them.

First up, we have Emma Conally-Barklem and Christine Cordon.

Emma Conally-Barklem

Emma Conally-Barklem is an author, poet and yoga teacher based in Yorkshire. In 2023, she was New Northern Poet for Ilkley Literature Festival. Her collection The Ridings was curated into an exhibition in her hometown, Bradford. Hymns from the Sisters was written after a residency at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Emma won the Black in White Poetry Prize 2024. She is also a core poet for the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Poetry Festival 2025. Yoga Homicide is her first novel.

Yoga Homicide

Three queer modem women, one ancient spiritual practice, who holds the knife? Magz is a biracial yoga newbie keen to transform her life. Skye, her yoga teacher, seems to have it all but the cracks are starting to show. Amie, former high-school It girl, is practising yoga for all the wrong reasons. 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

Christine Cordon

Christine Cordon grew up on a trading estate in Gateshead and was the first in her family to go to university; reading law at Balliol College, Oxford. She is a former corporate and finance lawyer and recent graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing school. Sycamore is her first novel.

Sycamore

Sycamore is a literary novel set in London in the early noughties. Penny, a young lawyer desperate to gain entry to the privileged world of the one-percenters, discovers the dangerous cost to female success. When her Cinderella dream turns sour, Penny implodes, just like the beloved sister she abandoned to the unemployed council estate where they grew up. A family tragedy and the credit crisis should provide the impetus Penny needs to walk away, but will she?

Contact Christine:

Email: Christinelcordon@gmail.com

We hope you enjoyed listening to these talented 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 2025 Writers’ Prize.

Thank you for your support and here's to 2025!

A massive thank you to everyone who has been involved with The Book Edit in 2024. I’m so proud of all the writers we’ve worked with and the incredible talent emerging from our collaborations.

This year’s Writers’ Prize—in association with Legend Press and judged by Lara Haworth—showcased eight brilliant winners at our annual prize event. You can read the anthology of winning entries or watch the recording here.

We’ll also be showcasing the eight shortlisted writers with clips of their readings beginning next week.

Hot off the press:

One of this year’s winners, Mike Murray, was also selected as a finalist in the Jericho First 500 Novel Competition and highly commended in the Irish Novel Fair Competition.

One of last year’s winner, Pavan Amara, has sold her debut novel, Mirror Mirror, to The Borough Press, an imprint at HarperCollins, in a three-way auction.

Stephanie Torrance, also a winner last year, won the Jericho First 500 Novel Competition (lovely to hear she and Mike bonded over the Book Edit connecttion during their finals!), beating over 1000 entrants to claim the first prize.

Long listed in 2022, Chris Bridges has sold his debut novel Sick to Death to Avon Books via his agent Hannah Schofield at LBA.

Shortlisted this year, Emma Conally-Barklem has had two performance poems published for the Black British Writers Feature Project in Breadfruit Magazine.

Book Edit client Chris Hatfield has published his debut non-fiction book, Sales Psyche, with Lid Publishing.

My ten-year-old son published his debut manga, The Definitely Normal School, in 2024 and is currently working on his second. (Couldn’t resist sneaking that one in!)

And finally, I’ll be teaching a small in-person creative writing course starting January 29th in De Beauvoir, East London. If you’re looking for help harnessing your creativity, developing your story’s core ideas, crafting characters, building your writing confidence, navigating the publishing landscape, and much more, this one’s for you. Deadline for signing up is 10 January. Only 10 spaces available.

That’s all from me. Thanks to everyone who worked with the Book Edit, supported us and kept their creative dreams alive. Here’s to many more adventures in 2025.

Emily X

Announcing 2024's Book Edit Writers' Prize Winners!

We are thrilled to announce the winners of 2024’s Writers’ Prize. Drum roll, please…the winners are:

Call me Adebimpe by Suzie Oluwabunmi

Crack the Donkey Christ by David McGrath

Jonathan Strong by Michelle Wales

Light at the End of the Cave by Bernie McQuillan

The Cocklemen by Mike Murray

The Red Moon Trails by Nabin Chhetri

The Sun Sets Twice by Nicola Godlieb

Wayne’s Night Out by Grayson Anderson

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

Run for the second time this year in association with Legend Press and judged by acclaimed author Lara Haworth, the competition for final places has been fierce.

Speaking of the experience, Lara said 'Judging this year's Writers' Prize was a vertiginous experience: countless beginnings, which always fill me full of hope and anticipation, that led to countless cliffhangers, because I only had the first thousand words of each novel. And I very much wanted to read on. The vividity, the richness, variety and freshness of the entries made choosing a shortlist a difficult task. The future of fiction is in very good hands.’ 

With massive thanks to Lara for her impeccable judging this year. And huge congratulations to all our winners. We can’t wait to hear them read next week at the showcase!

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

2024 Book Edit Writers' Prize Shortlist Announced!

Congratulations to the sixteen writers who have been shortlisted for 2024’s Book Edit Writers’ Prize, run in association with Legend Press and judged this year by Lara Haworth.

THE SHORTLISTED WRITERS AND THEIR NOVELS ARE:

• After by David Gill

• Ah Couldnae Tell by Pip Penman

• Blue Sky, Red Dust by Alexis Coward

• Call me Adebimpe by Suzie Oluwabunmi

• Cats Who Smoke by Nancy Edwards

• Crack the Donkey Christ by David McGrath

• Crash Test Doctors by Himmi Kari

• Jonathan Strong by Michelle Wales

• Light at the End of the Cave by Bernie McQuillan

• Sycamore by Christine Cordon

• The Cocklemen by Mike Murray

• The Gorse in the Gloaming by Hannah Foster

• The Red Moon Trails by Nabin Chhetri

• The Sun Sets Twice by Nicola Godlieb

• Wayne’s Night Out by Grayson Anderson

• Yoga Homicide by Emma Conally-Barklem

The final winners will be announced next week with a special online showcase for industry guests later on this month. All the winning entries will also be published in an online anthology accessed via The Book Edit’s website after the showcase.

Congratulations to all our short and longlisted writers! And watch this space for further announcements next week.

2024 Book Edit Writers' Prize Longlist Announcement

We are thrilled to announce the longlist for 2024's Book Edit Writers' Prize, celebrating emerging voices in fiction from underrepresented communities across the UK.

For the second consecutive year, we've partnered with Legend Press to discover and showcase exceptional new talent. The Prize seeks to amplify voices from communities currently underrepresented in publishing, creating vital pathways into the industry for British and UK-based novelists who have yet to secure representation or publication.

The response to this year's competition has been fantastic, with a record-breaking number of submissions that showcase the incredible depth and diversity of storytelling talent across the country. Each entrant was asked to submit their novel's opening 1,000 words, accompanied by a synopsis and a personal statement about their writing journey.

The longlisted works span an impressive range of genres and styles, from contemporary literary fiction to historical epics. Each longlisted writer has demonstrated exceptional promise, crafting compelling narratives that deserve to be shared with a wider audience. Their stories not only showcase strong storytelling but also bring fresh voices to contemporary literature.

THE LONGLISTED WRITERS AND THEIR NOVELS ARE:

• After by David Gill

• Ah Couldnae Tell by Pip Penman

• An Apple a Day by Sarah Jones

• Blue Sky, Red Dust byAlexis Coward

• Call me Adebimpe by Susan Emina

• Cats Who Smoke by Nancy Edwards

• Crack the Donkey Christ by David McGrath

• Crash Test Doctors by Himmi Kari

• Dana Williams and the Funeral by - Vic Lendon

• Eve & Adam by Eloise Poulton

• Exposure Therapy by Sarah Collins

• Jonathan Strong by Michelle Wales

• Laowai by Josephine Jay

• Light at the End of the Cave by Bernie McQuillan

• Light Beyond the Mountains by Alka Handa

• Sweet Doing Nothing by Sasha Ellery

• Sycamore by Christine Cordon

• The Cocklemen by Mike Murray

• The Gorse in the Gloaming by Hannah Foster

• The Red Moon Trails by Nabin Chhetri

• The Sun Sets Twice by Nicola Godlieb

• The Vow by Maria Clark

• Wayne’s Night Out by Grayson Anderson

• Yoga Homicide by Emma Conally-Barklem

Next Steps

The shortlist will be announced next week, with the winners revealed just before our online showcase on November 20, 2024.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work, and huge congratulations to all our longlisted writers.

For more information about the Prize and updates on our shortlist announcement, please follow us on social media or sign up to our mailing list.

The Book Edit Writers' Prize is committed to discovering and nurturing new literary talent from underrepresented communities, helping to create a more diverse and inclusive publishing landscape.