We’re excited to reveal the winners of our Pitch to Win the Novel Creator Course competition! It has been really hard to choose between our shortlisted pitches as the ideas behind these novels and the pitches are all fantastic.
Congratulations to the 15 writers who made it through to the shortlist, and all of the writers who were longlisted too.
Shortlisted Pitches
- Carousel by Eibhlís Carcione
- Deception by Hannah Redding
- Every Colour of Light by Laura McNeil Namazi
- EXXHIBIT by Penelope Creighton
- Inside by Gemma Allen
- Mohammed’s Radio by Robert Booth
- Paper Windows by Kristen Loesch
- Peter Heggarty Wants to Get Off by Mark Stocker
- Redundant Care by Rachel Canwell
- The 13 Month Diary by Jackie Morrison
- The Baby in the Box by Anne Hamilton
- The Clayridge Chronicles by Sam Payne
- These Leaves of Mine by Faye Brinsmead
- Timid Eyes Seeking Food by Georgina Evans
- Unholy Liberties by Gautam Das
Well done to our winners! We can’t wait to help you develop these exciting ideas. We found it too hard to choose between two pitches for the third prize place so have awarded it to two writers! They’ll both get a call to chat through their novel idea.
First Prize Winner: Paper Windows by Kristen Loesch
1951 Hong Kong: Mei makes traditional Chinese paper cuts with a distinctive design. A dead body is found, the back delicately carved – into her design.
Why we chose it: Kristen has given us a pitch that instantly placed us in a time that has great scope for a dramatic and atmospheric setting. There’s mystery, intrigue and we are connected to a narrator who is thrown into conflict. We want to know who’s dead, why they’re dead, how they died, and what the design, and Mei, have to do with it all.
Kristen wins a place on our year-long Novel Creator Course to write this novel with us!
Second Prize Winner: The Clayridge Chronicles by Sam Payne
Contemporary gothic novel about the unravelling of a small town community when a touring theatre company perform a sequence of plays depicting their darkest secrets.
Why we chose it: Sam has given us pitch that stipulates genre and instantly invokes appropriate tone and atmosphere. Conflicts are implied with the clever use of ‘unravelling’ and we were instantly picturing all kinds of sinister scenes that had our imaginations racing. The pitch leaves you desperate to know who the company are, how they know, and what they are up to.
Sam wins a place on our work-alone Start Your Novel Course, which is a condensed version of the Novel Creator Course.
Third Prize Winner: EXXHIBIT by Penelope Creighton
Mina is a museum exhibit; one of the last living Homo Sapiens. Then a modern human claims to be her brother – but men are extinct.
Why we chose it: We’re instantly connected to a narrator who is a living museum exhibit so all sorts of questions arise about what kind of world this is. Then the following line introduces conflict and even more mystery – why are men extinct?!
Penelope wins a 30-minute Zoom session or telephone call with Amanda to chat through her plan for this novel.
Third Prize Winner: Mohammed’s Radio by Robert Booth
A Jewish scout discovers a talented Palestinian rock thrower in Gaza, then overcomes family and political obstacles to make him a famous Big League pitcher.
Why we chose it: Amazing setting with huge potential and instant connection to two characters who shouldn’t be together. Plus it lets us know the fish out of water journey this novel will take us on. Part Slumdog, part Rocky.
Robert wins a 30-minute Zoom session or telephone call with Craig to chat through his plan for this novel.
Huge congratulation to our winners. We wish we could’ve given prizes to every writer here on our shortlist as the standard of pitches we received, and the imagination behind the ideas, is phenomenal!