Garmus, Ali, Keyes and more longlisted for Comedy Women in Print Prize

Authors including Bonnie Garmus, Monica Ali, Marian Keyes and Phoebe Luckhurst have been longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize for a Published Novel.

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.

Longlisted in the Published Novel category are 16 novels: Love Marriage by Monica Ali (Virago);  The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam (Canongate); Either/Or by Elif Batuman (Jonathan Cape); The Writing on the Wall by Jenny Éclair (Hachette Children’s); Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen (John Murray) ; Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Transworld) ; Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph); and Impossible by Sarah Lotz (HarperCollins).

Also in the running for the prize are: The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst (Penguin); Are We Having Fun Yet? by Lucy Mangan (Souvenir Press); Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Weidenfeld and Nicolson); Wahala by Nikki May (Doubleday); The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle); Did You Miss Me? by Sophia Money-Coutts (HQ) ; One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe (Viking); and Sedating Elaine by Dawn Winter (Fleet).

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: “I can’t believe how CWIP has grown and evolved in four years! Apart from celebrating a wider reach of topics in witty fiction this year, we can also celebrate a growing list of new ‘career writers’ who may not have been published without this platform. Our USP has to be having a publisher, trusting enough to publish an unknown writer from the start.”

This year’s judges of CWIP’s published category include comedy actor Susie Blake, comedian Arabella Weir, broadcaster and head judge Angie Greaves, actor Anita Dobson and presenter Michelle de Swarte.

Judge Michelle de Swarte said of the longlist: “I feel absolutely honoured to be one of the first to read these exciting new stories…here’s to a bright start to 2023”, while judge Susie Blake added: “I am so excited by the current ebullience of witty women writers, and the time is so right to celebrate them!” 

The 12 longlistees for the Unpublished Novel category have also been announced. These are: While He Looked at the Moon, Christina Carty; Of Goats and Ghosts, Fiona Cooper; Death and Her Life, Veronika Dapunt; From Me, To You, Alison Hitchcock; The Second Adolescence, Miranda Horn; Miss Merriman Regrets, Louise Jensen; Swiping at 60, Niloufar Lamakan; Pull Yourself Together, Rachel James!, Eleanor Massey; Happy Above Use, Silvia Saunders; When Stars Align, Gemma Tizzard; Second Chance, Joanna Waldron; and Godfellas, Nicola Whyte. 

Head Judge Jennifer Young said of these: "It is extraordinary to see the impact of the unpublished prize on people’s lives—obviously the winners, but we’ve seen people from the longest and shortlist get agents and publishing deals. CWIP opens doors for such diverse voices." 

Judge Llewella Gideon said: "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."

The winner of the unpublished category will receive a publishing contract and a £5,000 advance from Harper Fiction. The unpublished runner-up receives a place on the University of Hertfordshire MA course in Creative Writing or Writing Mentorship. A second runner-up will receive a place on the online MA in Comedy Writing from Falmouth University – the first of its kind in the country.