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Hachette reveals 10 winners of Grow Your Story writing competition among ‘remarkable’ submissions
Hachette Pride has revealed its 10-strong cohort for the Grow Your Story initiative following 235 submissions.
Partnering with The Future Bookshelf and David Higham Associates, Grow Your Story is a writing support programme for unpublished, unagented LGBTQ+ fiction stars of the future.
The selected writers were chosen from 235 submissions, which were initially scored by more thanr 100 volunteer readers from across all Hachette divisions. Those with the highest average scores were sent to the panel of judges to form the final cohort.
The judges were Little, Brown senior commissioning editor and co-chair of the Hachette Pride network Cal Kenny, DHA agent Sara Langham, and Hachette authors C L Clark (Little, Brown) and Laura Kay (Quercus). The 10 selected writers will have access to a series of workshops commencing in January 2025, plus a mentor from both Hachette and David Higham Associates to work with them on their manuscript.
Kenny said: “The quality of Grow Your Story submissions was remarkable and these 10 writers represent the very best of more than 200 applicants, working across different genres, from fantasy to thriller, literary to commercial, and many moulding a genre to meet their own ends.
“The other judges and I spoke for several hours and had robust conversations about the list, which showcases writers from across the UK and Ireland, all of whom have varying backgrounds and levels of experience. I can’t wait to support this cohort in this early part of what will, I hope, be illustrious careers.”
They described judging “as a highlight of my time at Hachette so far”.
The 10 selected stories are: “Barraigh Mòr” by Amelia Aston, “Fireworks” by Patrick Cash,“Lichwake” by Kym Deyn, “Toxicity” by Konrad Heller, “Amniotomy” by Roisin Elizabeth Keats, “Pathos” by Laurie Kirwan-Ashman, “Gringo” by David Martinez, “The Meow Woman” by Alex Summer Milne,“Resonance” by Kerry Ryan and “It Bleeds from Our Fingers” by Corranne Wheeler.
The home for Hachette UK’s creative writing programmes, The Future Bookshelf aims to make publishing more open and accessible to all people, from all backgrounds and communities.
The Future Bookshelf runs different competitions and creative writing projects each year that offer prizes, mentoring opportunities, and provide skills and support to aspiring writers and designers from under-represented backgrounds.
