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.

Author Spotlight: Rebecca Ley

With just over a week left until The Book Edit Writers’ Prize deadline, we wanted to share the profiles of some of the brilliant authors The Book Edit has supported in the past to inspire submissions to the competition. Last time we looked at the phenomenal Hannah Begbie, prize-winning novelist of Mother (2018) and Blurred Lines (2020) both published by Harper Collins. Today we’re looking at the work of Rebecca Ley, whose debut novel, For When I’m Gone, came out with Orion in September 2020.

Rebecca Ley is a journalist and author who worked with The Book Edit on a full developmental edit of her debut, For When I’m Gone (Orion, 2020). With the feedback she received, Rebecca was able to redraft the book, secure an agent and within a few months she had sold the book to Orion. She says of the experience: ‘I found using The Book Edit brilliant. It was invaluable to have an experienced editor look at my work before trying to find an agent. The suggestions she made were extremely perceptive and useful in the redrafting process.’ 

For When I’m Gone is narrated by a young mother, Sylvia, dying of breast cancer. The novel is a guidebook, written to her husband, about their family life with a secret at its heart. Though the subject matter is dark, the novel is uplifting and masterful in its exploration of the minutiae of daily parenting. It’s a novel that stays with you long after reading. 

Rebecca is currently working on her second novel for Orion, due out next year. She also ghost-wrote a memoir, Hope Not Fear, for the inspirational Hassan Akkad, a Syrian refugee and Bafta-winning filmmaker who volunteered to work as a hospital cleaner when the pandemic hit and then persuaded Boris Johnson to extend the bereavement scheme to cleaners, porters and healthcare assistants. 

You can read more about Rebecca Ley and her writing process in the interview she did for The Book Edit where she gives advice to new writers and talks further about her process and the themes of her work. Click here for that interview in which she also explores ghosting as a metaphor for motherhood and being absent from the self.

Or take a leaf out of Rebecca Ley’s book and send your work to The Book Edit by submitting to The Book Edit Writers’ Prize. Aimed at supporting talented writers who might not otherwise have access to the industry, the prize is open to unpublished 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 2021.

Interview with Rebecca Ley, author of debut novel, For When I'm Gone.

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We were delighted when Rebecca Ley’s debut novel, For When I’m Gone, came out earlier this month. A heartbreaking story of love and loss, the novel is cleverly narrated through the handbook a young mother writes for her husband, to guide him after she’s gone.

Rebecca is not just a novelist but a successful journalist and mother of three, so we were thrilled when she found time to answer our questions about her writing journey.

Emily Pedder: ‘When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer’?

Rebecca Ley: ‘The day I realised that it was something you could do. I loved reading more than anything. I hope this doesn’t sound too pretentious but no other art form has ever reliably afforded me the same glimpse of transcendence as reading good writing - for me, it’s like plugging into the matrix. I find it harder to get that from music or visual art. So I always saw attempting it myself as the absolute ideal. But as I grew up, I understood how hard it was (and is!) to make a living from writing fiction, so I deliberately went into journalism, which has mostly proven a very varied and interesting career. They are very different disciplines, but I love them both.’ 

EP: ‘Is For When I’m Gone your first attempt at a novel?’

RL: ‘No. I did the Faber Academy course in 2012 and wrote the first draft of a novel about a newspaper, based on my experience of working on one. I got to 80,000 words but it wasn’t right, I knew it, so I bottom drawered it and got swept up in mothering infants. It’s unbelievably easy to let life get in the way.’

EP: ‘How was the process of writing the novel? Did it come easily or did it take time to find your voice and flow?’ 

RL: ‘In 2017 I sat down again and started what was to become For When I’m Gone. Part of the issue with my first book had been not feeling like it was in my authentic voice. So I was very deliberate about creating something that was. Not that my main protagonist is anything like me, just that the tone of the book felt right. I kept the sphere closer too, which felt truer to my own tastes. With those things in mind, it flowed much more naturally. I still had doubts - I don’t think any writer is ever completely sure about something they are working on. But it felt like ‘me’ and I realised how crucial that was.’ 

EP: ‘Who were your favourite authors as a child?’

RL: ‘Margaret Mahy and Dianna Wynne Jones. The thought of their books still gives me a kind of yearning feeling. I love a bit of magical realism, especially in an otherwise mundane situation. I wrote an entire dissertation about Iris Murdoch’s use of it!’

EP: ‘If you could give your younger writing self some advice, what would it be?’

RL: ‘Not to worry so much about narrative perspective. I was so hung up on whether I should use an omniscient narrator, or a closed third or first person. Obviously it’s an important decision, but not one that should let you get in the way of actually making a start. You can always change your mind at a later date and mix it up within a novel. As you write, the right form becomes clearer.’

EP: ‘What would you have done if you hadn’t become a writer?’ 

RL: ‘If I wasn’t doing any form of writing - so I wasn’t a journalist either - I may well have gone into law. More through a lack of imagination than anything else - it’s the kind of respectable professional choice open to you as an English graduate. But I think it’s for the best that I didn’t. I’d almost certainly be richer, but I’m pretty sure corporate office life would make me profoundly unhappy.’

Rebecca Ley, author of For When I’m Gone

EP: ‘How have you found combining motherhood with writing?’

RL: ‘Until you have childcare, I think it’s pretty impossible to write regularly. Or at least, it was for me personally. Your days are just so absorbed with looking after these tiny beings, your nights are so fractured. But once I found childcare, I have actually found motherhood quite an inspiration in terms of subject matter and motivation. That said, it can feel like there are too many browser tabs open in your mind at all times. And I find it very difficult to do any writing at all if they’re in the house. If they’re near, even if someone else is looking after them, they have the pull of my attention. The only time I can manage it if I start writing first thing, with a cup of tea, before engaging. Sometimes I can fool myself that they don't exist for an hour or two.’

EP: ‘What inspired you to come up with a narrator who’s already dead in For When I’m Gone?’

RL: ‘For When I’m Gone started as a ghost story. Haunting presented itself as a metaphor for motherhood. I used to trudge around my house, picking up discarded sippy cups and toys, feeling almost like I was haunting my own life. Which isn’t to say that I was unhappy, because I wasn’t - or not predominantly - but just that mothering involves absenting yourself, in a sense. Your desires and ambitions are no longer centre stage. Which is a weird transition, particularly in our society perhaps, but also has tremendous upsides. It can be a lovely relief not to think about yourself all the time.'

Over time, the ghost story element of Sylvia’s life was largely curtailed (although there is still a hint if you look for it!) but the sense of a narrator who is already dead remained. It was important to me that those parts are written in the present tense, in that manual form. She’s dead, you know she is - but she’s right there. 

Dying is so weird - how can someone, with all their aspirations and joys and petty jealousies, cease to exist? I wanted to look at that. I was writing obituaries for my day job at the time, so the incomprehensible inevitability of non-existence was very much to the forefront of my mind!’

EP: ‘What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned as a writer?’

RL: ‘In terms of writing a novel, it’s crucial to get words on the page. You can go back and rework, but you have to get them out first. Don’t judge what you’re producing harshly - that’s for later. But there’s a caveat and that’s that you also have to try and articulate the mood of your book, even if the early stages. It can just be a feeling, an ache in your chest, that you are trying to write towards. 

The other lesson has been how much of writing happens in your subconscious. Things you don’t expect will intrude and you should let them.’

EP: ‘What are you working on now?’

RL: ‘I’m ghosting the memoir of a remarkable man called Hassan Akkad. He’s a Syrian refugee and Bafta-winning filmmaker who volunteered to work as a hospital cleaner when the pandemic hit. He then persuaded Boris Johnson to extend the bereavement scheme to cleaners, porters and healthcare assistants after they were initially excluded. He’s so inspiring; it’s a complete privilege to help him tell his story.

I’m also working on my second novel for Orion.’

Thank you so much, Rebecca! We wish For When I’m Gone all the luck in the world.

Rebecca Ley to publish debut novel with Orion Fiction

We were so thrilled to hear about this one.

Journalist and author, Rebecca Ley, has sold her debut novel, For When I’m Gone, to Orion.

Rebecca came to The Book Edit last year and was matched with one of our editors for a full developmental edit. With the feedback she received, she was able to rework the novel and to secure an agent, Sophie Lambert at Colville and Walsh. Within a few months, she had sold the book to Orion.

Publishing Director at Orion, Clare Hey, has said “Rebecca’s writing is full of hope and joy as well as sadness and loss and I am so excited to be bringing this wonderful novel to readers."

Speaking of her experience with The Book Edit, Rebecca has said “I found it brilliant. It was invaluable to have an experienced editor look at my work before trying to find an agent. the suggestions she made were extremely perceptive and useful in the redrafting process.”

A novel about love, grief and living, For When I’m Gone looks set to make everyone’s heart break next year. Congratulations, Rebecca!