We are delighted to be announcing here the shortlist for the Owned Voices Novel Award 2021. We wish to commend all shortlisted authors on the strength of their submissions, particularly given the quality and volume of submissions this year.
Radhika Sonagra, Novel Award Judge 2021
“The quality of the submissions has been very impressive, making it a tough but fun competition to judge. When reading the submissions, the two key things I was looking for were a stand-out pitch and strong writing to support that. It’s been brilliant to see so many writers delivering both of these things. I have high hopes for the winners and cannot wait to see how Leodora and the Owned Voices team nurture them further.”
Leodora Darlington, Novel Award Judge 2021
“It has been brilliant reading such a wide variety of submissions. Not only have I been blown away by some of the superbly thought-out pitches, I have also been impressed to see so much raw talent in the writing, with many writers demonstrating a spellbinding and masterful command of their narrative voice. At Owned Voices, our commitment has always been to bringing under-represented voices to mainstream audiences, and with the strength of concepts and writing here, I’m hopeful that the novel award will generate new success stories.”
The shortlisted writers for the Owned Voices Novel Award 2021 are as follows:
Andrew Stevens
Bruce Aiken
Cathy Cole
Elspeth Leadbetter
Harry F Rey
Julie Farrell
Karen Naylor
Kitty Edwards
Nusrat Zar
Ulka Karandikar
Our shortlisted writers are invited to our ‘Routes to Getting Published’ Q&A panel on the 21st April. On our panel is Katie Fulford, who has over thirty years of publishing experience and is currently an agent at Bell Lomax Moreton; Keshini Naidoo, co-founder and publishing director at the forward-thinking Hera Books; and RNA Agent of the Year, and Bookseller Rising Star of 2020, Hattie Grünewald. Together, they have an invaluable amount of knowledge, and we look forward to talking all things publishing with them and our attending authors.
Our thanks go out once more to all the writers who applied. We would encourage all unsuccessful applicants to keep an eye out for future opportunities from us!