Indie presses dominate London Magazine award for debuts

Independent publishers have dominated the shortlist for a new award for debuts from literary periodical The London Magazine.

The London Magazine and Collyer Bristow Prize for a Debut Work of Fiction intends to celebrate "exceptional" literary fiction and the 2018 edition will award a stand-out debut novel published in the UK between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2017.

Up for the prize are This is Memorial Device by David Keenan (Faber & Faber), a love letter to the small towns of Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland in the late 1970s and early 80s; Darker with the Lights On, a short story collection from David Hayden (Little Island Press); Safe Mode, an “ambient” novel by Sam Riviere (Test Centre); and Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic (Pushkin Press), a novel of obsessive love, family secrets, and the dangers of living our lives online.

The judging panel will be chaired by London Magazine reviews editor Matthew Scott and comprise of journalist Suzi Feay, book critic Houman Barekat, and partner at Collyer Bristow, Steven Heffer.

The winner of the prize will receive £1,000, presented at a literary event held at the Collyer Bristow Contemporary Art Gallery on the 20th September.