Magdalena McGuire wins Impress Prize for New Writers

Impress Books has awarded Magdalena McGuire the Impress Prize for New Writers 2016 for her novel, The Shape of Your Song.

The Shape of Your Song is a work of historical fiction set in communist Poland in the 1980s.

The decision was made by a panel of judges which consisted of author Michael Jecks; author and contributing editor at The Bookseller, Cathy Rentzenbrink; chair of the Historical Novel Society Devon Chapter Richard Lee; digital director at Unbound Xander Cansell; and editorial assistant at Impress Books Julian Webb.

The panel also awarded David Norman an Impress Prize Commendation for his novel South of Hannah, which will be crowdfunded in conjunction with Unbound.

Julian Webb, a member of the Impress Prize panel, said: “This year’s shortlist was one of the strongest we’ve had at Impress, and it was a privilege to be able to read such high quality writing. The panel discussion was long, thorough, and very enjoyable. We emerged with an extraordinarily worthy winner in The Shape of Your Song and an exciting commendation – South of Hannah. I can’t wait for the editorial team to get started on these new titles.”