Laxfield Literary announces winner of New Anglia Manuscript Prize

Laxfield Literary Associates has announced that Mikela Bond is the winner of the 2023 New Anglia Manuscript Prize, run by the literary agency in association with the National Centre for Writing. The other shortlisted authors were Adam Leeder, Hannah Upton and Bryn Gosling.

Bond, an English teacher from Diss, Norfolk, won for her unpublished debut novel, The Hollow Hours, which is set in Norfolk. Emma Shercliff, who established Laxfield Literary Associates in Suffolk in 2020 as part of a commitment to support writing in the region, said she “loved the complex family dynamics in this novel".

Sponsored by the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, the New Anglia Manuscript Prize recognises the best new writing from Suffolk and Norfolk in the form of a début work from an unpublished writer.

The judges were Chris Gribble, chief executive of the National Centre for Writing, crime writer and publisher Phoebe Morgan, and agency founder Emma Shercliff. Bond wins £500 and representation from Laxfield Literary Associates.

Gribble said: "Every family has secrets and every family knows that, one way or another, they have a habit of rising to the surface. Mikela Bond has written a taut and compelling contemporary novel tracking the damage that secrets can do to a family and it’s a story that will resonate with many readers.”

Morgan said: “The Hollow Hours had me immediately gripped – it’s the claustrophobic story of a missing girl in Norfolk and the secrets that are contained in the house from which she vanished. Mikela handles the family relationships exceptionally well, and I loved the twist at the end.”