The Women’s Prize Trust 2024 – Six authors shortlisted for the 2024 Discoveries writing prize – winner to be announced 23 May

 

The Women’s Prize Trust – the registered charity that creates equitable opportunities for women in the world of books and beyond – today announces the 2024 prize shortlist for its Discoveries writing programme, now in its fourth year.

The Discoveries programme, run by the Women’s Prize Trust in partnership with Curtis Brown literary agency, the Curtis Brown Creative writing school (both part of The Curtis Brown Group) and Audible, aims to find and support aspiring female novelists from across the UK and Ireland.

Six unpublished and unrepresented women writers have been selected for this year’s Discoveries prize shortlist on the strength of the opening 10,000 words and synopsis of their novel-inprogress. Chosen from almost 3,000 entrants, the shortlisted writers include: a former psychiatric nurse who decided to pursue writing when made redundant; an amateur playwright-turnedlawyer; and a History of Art masters graduate who grew up in Istanbul. They are joined by an editorial assistant from Leicester, an Irish student, and a London-based communications professional.

The shortlisted novels-in-progress range in genre across fantasy, historical fiction, voice-led social realism and societal comment, coming-of-age stories and contemporary romance. From monsters in the dark, to some very real monstrous figures of the 1970s; from ‘the one that got away’, to a complex open marriage; from an intense co-dependent friendship in the present day, to the unexpected appearance of an enemy from the troubled past.

The shortlisted authors are (in alphabetical order by surname):

  • Niamh Connolly for Game Theory
  • Alison Dudeney for Marsh End: The Darkness That Follows
  • Alice Fletcher for The Hungry Dark
  • Zeynep Kazmaz for Viscid Residue
  • Georgia Moorhouse for Henry
  • Nalisha Vansia for Not This Again

The winner will be announced on 23rd May.

Read more about the shortlist writers here: Women’s Prize Trust Discoveries Writing Programme – Shortlist 2022 (pdf)

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