PRH publishes 20th debut author through WriteNow

The 20th WriteNow debut author has been published by a Penguin Random House (PRH) imprint. 

Guest Privileges by Gaar Adams (Harvill Secker) was published on 28th March as part of the programme, which aims to publish new writers from communities underrepresented on the nation’s bookshelves. The book is described as “an intimate and illuminating account of queer lives and migration, homemaking, and community in the Gulf”. King of Dead Things by Nevin Holness (PRH Children’s), a YA fantasy inspired by Caribbean folklore, was published in early March. 

Since launching in 2016, WriteNow has invited 62 writers onto the year-long editorial programme, matching them with an editor to work on their book and position it in the market. In addition to this, 850 writers have been provided one-to-one feedback from a PRH editor, while 1,600 writers have attended workshops designed to demystify the publishing industry. 

The 20 WriteNow debuts include picture books, middle grade, YA, memoir, commercial and literary fiction, verse novels and narrative non-fiction. Other authors who have come through the programme include Beth Lincoln, author of New York Times bestseller The Swifts (Puffin); Manjeet Mann, author of the Costa Children’s Book Award-winning The Crossing (PRH Children’s); Mohsin Zaidi, winner of a LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for A Dutiful Boy (Vintage); and Rashmi Sirdeshpande, BookTrust’s current writer in residence. 

Several WriteNow alumni have also gone on to be published elsewhere, including Kirsty Capes, author of Careless (Orion), which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022, and Nels Abbey, author of Think Like a White Man (Canongate).