The Book Edit Writers’ Prize is open for submissions. The aim of the Writers’ Prize is to help talented writers, who might not otherwise have access to the industry, get their work in front of an audience of top literary agents.

The competition is for British and/or UK-based, unpublished novelists from backgrounds and communities currently underrepresented in UK publishing.

Judged this year by acclaimed novelist and artist Lara Haworth, the competition will select eight writers to read their work at a live Zoom showcase event for invited industry guests taken from The Book Edit’s wide industry network. After the event, an anthology of the readings and recordings from the showcase will be published on The Book Edit’s website.

The winning writers will also be given training on reading their work aloud with an online rehearsal one week before the showcase. The training and event hosting will be provided by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone who has been involved in reading events for over fifteen years and who currently runs City Writes and hosts The Novel Studio Showcase at City, University of London.

The competitions is completely free to enter. All entrants will be offered advice on other options including mentoring, courses and editing.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.