Announcing the winners of the First Novel Award
Kate McNair is the winner of the 2019 First Novel Award for The Price of Blood. She has been signed by agent Nelle Andrew.
Opening of Shortlisted Titles – First Novel Award 2019
Ahead of announcing the winners of our First Novel Award on Friday 27 September, here are the openings of the six shortlisted novels. The winner will receive £1,000 in cash plus an introduction to literary agent Nelle Andrew and the runner up, £250 in cash and a manuscript review from a BPA editor. The standard…
2019 Shortlist – 6 titles
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Shortlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in cash and an editorial report. The Award is given to unpublished writers without…
2019 Longlist- 23 titles
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Longlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in cash and an editorial report. The Award is given to unpublished writers…
Shortlisted author Gill Thompson talks about her publishing success
Gill Thompson was shortlisted for the inaugural First Novel Award in 2017. Her novel The Oceans Between Us was published by Headline Press in March on the same day as The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby, our 2017 winner! “I had wanted to write a novel for as long as I can remember. But…
Book launch and an agent signing for Mandy Robotham
2018 First Novel Award runner up Mandy Robotham has signed with agent Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency. Sales of her first book A Woman of War have surpassed expectations – e.book and paperback sales in UK are now at 81,000, with the paperback edition titled The German Midwife launching in the US and Canada on…
Writing Advice with Mandy Robotham
Mandy Robotham is the author of “Breeder”, the story that was awarded the runner-up prize in the BPA First Novel Award Competition 2018. After completing a masters in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University, Mandy has won several prizes for her short stories. Our judges particularly enjoyed the tension and structure of Mandy’s writing and so we…
Writing Advice with Jules Lampshire
Jules Lampshire is the winner of the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2018 for her novel My Poor Deluded Girl which she wrote while attending the six month Faber Academy Writing a Novel programme in 2017. Our judges praised her work as being “one of those real moments in fiction where a reader can put themselves…
Damhnait Monaghan shortlisted for Caledonia
BPA client, Damhnait Monaghan is shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!
Advice to writers from 2018 First Novel Award judge Fiona Mitchell
We asked author Fiona Mitchell, author of The Maids Room to give some tips to writers entering the 2018 competition: What will you be looking for in the competition line up? I’d love to see a brilliant character-led novel with a dynamic, original voice. I adore uplifting fiction, but am also a sucker for a book…