Madeleine Milburn Agency launches writing competition

The Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency will tomorrow (22nd July) launch a competition to find unpublished authors.

The theme of this year’s ‘Madeleine Milburn Summer Writing Competition’ is ‘make us scared’, and entrants can send any genre of writing as long as it fits the brief. Writers from anywhere in the world that are un-agented and unpublished are eligible, although their manuscripts must be in English.

Milburn (pictured) said: "As an agent I love discovering new voices, so I'm launching a competition to make writers aware of the areas we're looking to grow. The summer months are a great time for us to focus on new talent and offer constructive feedback to potential authors, so we'll be offering representation to the winner, with the top five manuscripts receiving editorial advice. Given our success with authors such as Fiona Barton and CL Taylor, I'm currently looking for my next big suspenseful book so we'll be launching the competition with the theme Make Us Scared - I can't wait to see what the entries will hold!"

The entries will be judged by two professional writers; Fiona Barton, author of The Widow (Bantam Press); and C L Taylor, whose works include The Accident, The Lie and The Missing (Avon).

Five entries will be shortlisted and all will receive feedback from the agency. One overall winner receive a prize of £500 and an offer of representation by Milburn.

To enter, aspiring writers must send complete manuscripts (or a minimum of 30,000 words) to competition@madeleinemilburn.com along with a one-page synopsis, author biography and contact details by 1st September.

The shortlist will be announced on 8th September with the winner revealed on 6th October 2016.