Many thanks to everyone that entered the June 2016 First Chapter Competition. Over 100 chapters have been read and we now have a longlist. All stories are read anonymously until the shortlist is decided so if your story is listed below then please don’t let us know which one it is!

Well done to everyone on this list and good luck for the next round of judging. The shortlist will be announced later in August and the 10 stories that make it through will be passed to Jenny Savill to read.

If you didn’t make this time, then go edit and polish and you’ll have another chance to get agent feedback in the December First Chapter competition. The judge this time is Sam Copeland, Literary Agent at Rogers, Coleridge and White whose list includes many prize-winning authors.

The June 2016 First Chapter Competition Longlist (in alphabetical order)

• A Policy on Kissing
• Birdwatching the Erinyes
• Broken Chord
• Grave Girls
• Jude
• Kissing Him Goodbye
• Love Refugee
• Mum’s Mistakes
• My Summer as Britannia
• Once a Happy Boy
• Refuge
• Rubble
• Secondhand
• Start Wearing Purple for Me Now
• Tear Gently
• The Chanteuse from Cape Town
• The Cold Benguela
• The Distance Between You and Me
• The Flesh
• The Haunted Tide
• The Lens You Look Through
• The Rosedale Miracle
• The Tin Sarcophagus
• The Uganda Sails Wednesday
• The Way Back
• The Zac Scaramouche Fan Club