We are thrilled to announce the BPA First Novel Award 2022 Longlist. This year’s judges are literary agents Rowan Lawton and Marina de Pass from The Soho Agency and author Jo Bloom (Permission, Ridley Road). Prizes for the winners include agent introductions as well as cash and an editorial report. The Award is given to unpublished writers without representation.
We received more than 950 entries from writers throughout the UK and across the globe. As usual, there was an incredibly high standard in historical fiction and this year brought some brilliant twisty thrillers. It was also great to see titles in the fantasy, speculative, YA, and romance genres, as well as plenty of book club and literary fiction.
This year’s Longlist includes stories of experimental therapy techniques for the unhappily married, a babysitter obsessed with her employer, a world where emotions can be offloaded to paid carriers, and a romance in the Great Storm of 1703.
The Shortlist will be announced in the first week of August. Those writers shortlisted will be asked to submit an additional 15,000 words to their original 5,000 word opening extract.
The names of writers on the Longlist will be announced along with the winners at the end of September. In the meantime, many congratulations to the authors of the following 23 exceptional titles:
The Angel and the Apothecary
The Dead Phone
Eliza’s Corner
Emotional Transport
The Fall of Bellweather
Felicity Braithwaite is Done with Being Nice
The Gibbous
The Husband Whisperer
I Do Not Know What She Sees
In a Quare Country
Life’s Too Short
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World
The Mouth That Swallows
My Father, the God
On My Mind
Paper Boats in Darjeeling
Petal
The Seafarer and the Storm
Something of a Hoax
Take this Light
Taking on the King
Traps
White Yams
0 Comments