De Waal and Henry headline event for Primadonna Prize

Kit de Waal and Lenny Henry will be in conversation as part of a special event in central London to reveal this year’s Primadonna Prize-winner.

The £500 award is for "unsigned and unrepresented new writing talent"  and will give the winner representation by literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes. The prize was established to open up access to the publishing industry, and is judged anonymously and without regard to grammar or spelling: a first for a literary prize. 

This year’s event will take place on 31st March and will also feature live comedy, readings, poetry and more, with compere Sandi Toksvig.

De Waal, who is also one of the prize judges, said she is "delighted" to be chatting with Henry about the BBC TV adaptation of My Name Is Leon (Simon & Schuster). "Lenny has championed the book from the beginning, and I’m looking forward to talking to him about the production, the acting process and our shared investment in the story and its themes" she said.

Her fellow judges include Summerhayes, Monique Roffey, author of last year’s Costa-winning The Mermaid of Black Conch (Peepal Tree) Sairish Hussain, whose debut novel The Family Tree (HQ) was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2020, Michael Donkor who was longlisted for the 2019 Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize following publication of his debut novel Hold (Fourth Estate) and head judge Lisa Milton, one of the Primadonna team and executive publisher at HQ Stories. The judges will meet ahead of the award event to pick their overall winner. 

"We’re very excited to read the final pieces and wrangle out a decision about which is best" said Summerhayes. "I have no doubt that the standard will be as exceptionally high as for every other year of the prize".

The inaugural winner of the prize, Elissa Soave, will have her debut novel Ginger and Me (HQ) published in July. Last year’s winner is working with Summerhayes on a final manuscript, shortly to go out for submissions. 

Tickets for the event are available via www.primadonnafestival.com or from Conway Hall’s website.