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Felicity Bryan Associates has unveiled the three writers selected for this year’s FBA New Voices programme featuring Khadisha Thomas, formerly of The Bookseller, along with Rosa Mäkelä and Bethany Holmes.
Set up by Aoife Inman, agent at Felicity Bryan Associates (FBA) and agents’ assistant Juliet Garcia, the scheme aims to demystify the publishing process for aspiring authors who are underrepresented voices in fiction and offer tailored editorial support for their work-in-progress.
The three writers, chosen from 100 applicants, will be mentored over nine months by a published author and an FBA literary agent. Literary journal The Stinging Fly also supplied free tickets to the writers for their virtual Summer School events programme.
Thomas, formerly customer services assistant at The Bookseller and The Stage, will work with Cathy Thomas, author of Islanders (Little, Brown), and agent Carrie Plitt. Thomas is a British-Trinidadian writer based in London who works in publishing. Her short story collection, After Laugh Is Cry, takes its name from a Trinidadian proverb that "after joy comes sorrow". Traversing from London to the Caribbean, the stories explore the experiences of the native and diasporic community of Trinidad and Tobago, weaving together themes of family, connection, identity and isolation.
Mäkelä has been paired with K Patrick, author of Mrs S (HarperCollins), and with agent Angelique Tran Van Sang. Mäkelä is a writer from County Galway, now based in Cork city, where she works in theatre. In her short story collection, Birthday, named after Dorothea Tanning’s surrealist self-portrait, characters weave themselves around questions of belonging and identity, searching for proof of themselves in their memories, their roles, their actions, and in others.
Bethany Holmes will be mentored by Melody Razak, author of Moth (Orion), and agent Caroline Wood. Originally from Merseyside but now based in London, Holmes is a writer and art book editor. Her novel, Almost Island, is a coming-of-age story set in early 1980s Wirral.
The novel follows Nancy, a young woman dreaming of art school in London, as she grapples with the aftermath of her older brother Dave’s schizophrenic breakdown. Intertwining past and present, the novel explores the trauma and internalised shame experienced by people deemed "mad" and their families.
Inman and Garcia commented: “We were so impressed by the richness and breadth of the entries we received.
Selecting three writers out of pool of over 100 was not an easy feat. The judging panel gravitated towards writers offering an irrepressible sense of voice, deft characterisation, fresh outlooks on the world, and a precise vision of what they would like their work to become.
"Rosa’s, Bethany’s and Khadisha’s entries all left an indelible impression on us, and we feel privileged to support them in the next step of their writing journey.”
Plitt said: “All the judges were impressed with the high quality of prose on the New Voices longlist, and we can’t wait to work with the three selected writers.
"Our industry can be opaque, especially for those from underrepresented backgrounds, and the aim of the programme is to help authors develop their writing at an early stage and to give them an understanding of how publishing works at this crucial time in their career.”