Six writers selected for Madeleine Milburn Mentorship Programme

The Madeleine Milburn Mentorship Programme, introduced in 2020 to champion new and exciting voices and launch their writing careers, has chosen six authors for 2022. 

Now in its third year, the 2022 programme is focusing entirely on aspiring authors from underrepresented backgrounds for the first time. Successful applicants have a six-month programme of sessions on the publishing industry featuring guest authors, editors, international rights and book-to-film agents. Each mentee will also receive guaranteed representation from an agent, who will work with them editorially and aim to ready the candidate’s manuscript for submission to publishers around the world. 

Those chosen include Camille Boxhill, whose contemporary thriller with sharp social commentary is an homage to her Jamaican heritage, as well as Katie Anderson-Morrison, writing a dual-timeline Second World War historical fiction novel set in a small retirement village, about two residents overcoming hidden secrets from the war to find a second chance at love. 

Abimbola Salami is working on a funny middle-grade fiction manuscript that blends fantasy and reality, about a young British Nigerian girl with an overactive imagination, while Via Krishna is writing a commercial fiction novel described as a “colonial heist adventure”. 

Also joining the group is Wendy Lennon, who is working on a narrative non-fiction project, and Kahlia Bakosi, whose murder mystery fuses Black British culture with a nostalgic commentary of school life after the death of a disliked teacher.