Last Wednesday evening the eight talented winners of the 2022 Book Edit Writers’ Prize read winning extracts from their novels in front of an audience of top literary agents, plus selected family and friends. Journeying from working class Northern England, through America, Bangladesh, Scotland and Palmers’ Green, these were stories of crime, grime, therapy, longing and trading in an array of speculative and literary fiction. Congratulations to them all on a brilliant evening of readings.

THE WINNERS OF THE BOOK EDIT WRITERS’ PRIZE 2022

Emily Dormand Bean

Serafina Cusack

Atar Hadari

Delwar Hussain

Alex J. Langtree

Julie Rea

Stephanie Vernier

F.Q. Yeoh

The Writers’ Prize is a national competition open to unagented, unpublished British and/or UK-based writers from communities underrepresented in publishing. Book Edit Director Emily Pedder said the aim was “to help talented writers from underrepresented backgrounds gain access to the industry in a way that might not otherwise have been possible.”

Entrants are invited to submit the first 1000 words of an already completed novel, along with a synopsis and statement about their writing experience. The eight winners were trained in reading their work aloud at an online rehearsal a week before the showcase. This year the competition was judged by acclaimed author Elizabeth Chakrabarty. Speaking about the prize, Elizabeth said “I was impressed, and intrigued by the diverse writing and genres of the entries, and look forward to reading the finished novels in the future.'” 

Congratulations to all our winners! May this be the start of great things for your writing careers. And huge thanks to Elizabeth for judging and to Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone for rehearsing, hosting and everything in between.

For anyone wanting to hear these fabulous writers read from their work a recording of the showcase and an anthology of the extracts are available here.