Bryant wins £2k Oxford/Pushkin Children's Fantasy Prize

Amy Bryant’s The Lion and the Mage has won the £2,000 Oxford/Pushkin Children’s Fantasy Prize, which is marking the 50th anniversary of J R R Tolkien’s death. The winner will also be provided with mentorship from Pushkin’s Children’s Books.

The prize, sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy and Pushkin Children’s Books, is aimed at discovering new voices writing middle-grade and YA fantasy. This year’s winning book is described as "a gripping story of a street thief turned Apprentice Mage, Ezran, who is raised to believe he is fated to save the kingdom – that is until he captures a girl with the healing touch who challenges all his beliefs".

The judging panel was made up of a publisher, an agent and two authors, who were unanimously impressed with the way the book tackles themes of "familial love, rebellion and how to escape your past".

The four runners up this year were Grace Caveney for Do You Know Where the Raindrops Go?, Meg Gaertner for A Very Strange Enchanted, Pen Holland for The Caretaker of York and Reba Khatun for Don’t Go Out After Dark. They have won free entry for a course aimed at helping their writing careers.

This year, the judges said they were "so impressed" by the runners up that they will be sharing the writers’ work with agents. They are encouraging interested agents and publishers to contact the prize’s organisers.