Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize split into adult and YA categories

The Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize, run jointly by UK indie Can of Worms and New York-based Leapfrog Press, is to split into adult fiction and young adult fiction categories this year.

The two awards, which celebrate unpublished short and long-form adult, YA and middle-grade fiction, will be judged by author Ann Hood and 2020 Carnegie Medal-winner Anthony McGowan respectively.

Hood has written 14 novels, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times' Op-Ed page. Her most recent work is Kitchen Yarns, published with W W Norton in early 2019. McGowan is the 2020 Carnegie Medal-winner for Lark (Barrington Stoke), the third novella in The Truth of Things series.

The annual prize was founded by Leapfrog publisher Lisa Graziano in 2009. In 2020, Can of Worms joined forces to publish the winning writers in the UK and the rest of the world. The winner in each category receives a publishing contract and an advance. Runners-up also receive a cash award and a critique of their work by the judges.

In March this year, Can of Worms and Leapfrog Press simultaneously published Amphibians, a short story collection by 2019 prize-winner Lara Tupper. The 2020 prize was awarded to Molly Giles for Wife With Knife, which will be published worldwide in October.

The longlist for the 2021 prize will be announced in early July, with the winners to be announced in September. All submissions are anonymised for blind judging and entries close in May.