Garmus, Ali and Mendelson shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize

Eight books by authors including Bonnie Garmus, Monica Ali and Charlotte Mendelson have been shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP).

The winner of the contest for the best comedy novel published between 29th May 2021 and 14th October 2022 will receive a cash prize of £3,000 from the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS). The runner-up will receive £1,000.

Shortlisted are: Love Marriage by Monica Ali (Virago);The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam (Canongate); Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen (John Murray); Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Transworld); Impossible by Sarah Lotz (HarperCollins); The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst (Penguin Michael Joseph); Wahala by Nikki May (Transworld);  and The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle). 

The judges are Arabella Weir, Susie Blake, Anita Dobson and Angie Greaves. Greaves said: “The panel had the most difficult task of creating a shortlist. After much debate, I feel that we’ve created a list that reflects creative writing at its best and also represents comedy at its best. Books that make you laugh whilst you’re reading and enable you to paint pictures in your mind are priceless.”

The Unpublished Comedy Novel category awards a work of at least 80,000 words with a publishing contract and £5,000 advance from HarperFiction. The unpublished runner-up receives a place on the University of Hertfordshire MA course in Creative Writing or Writing Mentorship.

Shortlisted for the Unpublished Novel category are: While He Looked at the Moon by Christina Carty; Death and Her Life by Veronika Dapunt; Miss Merriman Regrets by Louise Jensen; Swiping at 60 by Niloufar Lamakan; Happy Above Use by Silvia Saunders; When Stars Align by Gemma Tizzard; Second Chance by Joanna Waldron; and Godfellas by Nicola Whyte. The winners of each category will be announced at a ceremony in London on 17th April. 

The CWIP Prize was launched by actor, author and stand-up comedian Helen Lederer in 2019 as a literary platform to increase exposure for diverse female witty voices in comedy fiction and as a way of celebrating fresh and established talent. She said: “Selecting eight was very painful to watch. All 16 titles provided wit and joy in so many different ways. But after much debate, they had to be whittled down to eight. We have a crop of debut novels, including one that has already gone to TV, as well as new pleasures from established witty authors. CWIP is a platform for witty literature as much as a competition. We may have laughed less in the last two years because of Covid but only a few years before that we were mostly laughing at men’s funny books because they were championed more. CWIP has changed that.”

Gideon said of the unpublished category: “Unpublished prizes give the writers the confidence and recognition that they are on the right path. I love reading the entries. It’s so exciting to read new female comedy voices.”

This year, the publisher Farrago is partnering with CWIP to curate an inaugural short story anthology to be published in the autumn. Entries are assessed anonymously and are open to published and unpublished authors including comedy performer and writer Josie Long as well as Kimberley Adams, Kim Clayden, Jean Ende, Wendy Hood, Paula Lennon, Rita Malik, Louise Mangos, Jacqueline Saville, Clare Shaw Kathryn Simmonds and Julia Wood.

Pete Duncan, publisher at Farrago, said: “CWIP plays such a brilliant part in highlighting women’s wit and the life-affirming power of humorous fiction. We are so excited for the inaugural Comedy Short Story Prize and the planned anthology resulting from the award. From the accidental death of a hamster to a mishap with a pot of glue at the checkout—all of these stories were as wild and imaginative as they were witty.”