Carty-Williams and Halls named in Women's Prize under-35 spotlight

The Women’s Prize and Good Housekeeping have unveiled their 10 most promising female authors under 35 including Candice Carty-Williams, Stacey Halls, Abigail Dean and Chibundu Onuzo.  

The Women’s Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award celebrates 100 years of the magazine and was first announced in August. The 10 most impressive female authors under the age of 35 were decided by a judging panel including author and Women’s Prize co-founder director Kate Mosse, broadcaster Naga Munchetty, author Sara Collins, Good Housekeeping editor-in-chief Gaby Huddart and the magazine’s books editor Joanne Finney.  

As well as Carty-Williams (pictured), Halls, Dean and Onuzo, the list also features Naoise Dolan, Eliza Clark, Natasha Brown, Daisy Johnson, Jessica Andrews and Sairish Hussain. 

Mosse said: “I’m delighted the Women’s Prize for Fiction [WPFF] is partnering with Good Housekeeping to celebrate their century. For more than a quarter of a century, the WPFF has been championing, celebrating and amplifying women’s voices. This campaign will celebrate 10 female authors, 35 and under in the UK, who are some of the leading voices in exciting, boundary-changing, authentic, inspirational, heartbreaking fiction writing. In other words, the classics of tomorrow for today.

"Being a writer at any age can be a challenge — and the WPFF has many campaigns to support writers at all stages of their careers — but with Futures we wanted to support that millennial generation of writers just starting out, to shine a spotlight on their work and to help connect them with potential readers.” 

Gaby Huddart, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping, said the scheme aimed "to shine a light on the leading younger voices of fiction for the future". She added: "Good Housekeeping has always been committed to celebrating women of all ages and backgrounds, and with 2022 marking our centenary, we wanted to celebrate our landmark birthday with a number of schemes and events that stay true to our heritage but also look forward to the future. With the past couple of years being particularly challenging for younger women starting out in their careers, we hope the Futures initiative will highlight some of the most talented young writers and bring them to a wider audience.” 

The competition attracted controversy when it was announced earlier this summer, with Joanna Walsh, who manages the @noentry_arts Twitter feed aimed at "changing the conversation about access", posting an open letter calling for organisers to remove the age criteria. The document now features more than 360 signatories including author Denise Mina, Jane Riekemann, co-founder of the Bath Short Story Award and literary agent Jonathan Ruppin. 

Organisers of the letter said: “Many women beginning writing careers later in life have experienced not only sexism, but intersectional obstacles due to gender, class and racial prejudice, disability and illness.” Good Housekeeping responded by describing how the magazine brand "wants to celebrate its landmark birthday with a number of schemes and events that stay true to our heritage but that look forward to the future” and that it has “has always championed women of all ages”. 

The public is invited to vote for the ultimate winner and everyone who votes will be entered into a draw for the opportunity to win a £100 voucher to use at bookshop.org.