Watson, Little and Indie Novella come together for prize celebrating emerging voices

Watson, Little and writers’ forum Indie Novella have come together for a new version of the Watson, Little Prize for 2023, which will be devoted to celebrating emerging voices from underrepresented communities.  

Watson, Little celebrated its 50th year as a literary agency in 2021 with the inaugural Watson, Little Prize. To mark a second edition of the prize, the agency teamed up with Indie Novella, an online hub providing free advisory services to aspiring writers and a free online forum to help make novel-writing and publishing more transparent and accessible. 

The new version of the prize invites writers to enter under the themes of community, climate and crime fiction, which are “particularly timely and relevant in today’s society", organisers said. 

"One thing the recent pandemic has taught us is we need to celebrate the importance of community. Therefore, we’re looking for distinctive, original, authentic stories inspired by a strong sense of place and community. Be it fiction resonating with a vivid sense of place, tales of diaspora or stories centred around a particular group of friends or family, we are interested in what community means for you.” 

They continued: “With temperatures in the UK breaking 40 degrees this summer, our second theme focuses on climate. This could be any interpretation of ‘cli-fi’, exploring any dramatic experience or narrative—whether romantic, crime, historical or other—in the context of our environment and climate change. Basically, stories which tackle climate whichever way an author can inventively and engagingly imagine.” 

Lastly, for crime fiction, they said: “An old favourite and with huge capacity for reinvention, we’re looking for crime fiction which breaks away from the mainstream and is told from fresh and different perspectives.”  

Laetitia Rutherford, literary agent of Watson, Little, said: “Here at Watson, Little we are delighted to collaborate with Indie Novella to offer a writing course free of charge to emerging writers. We have designed the course in order to give creative advice as well as industry context for new writers’ work-in-progress. In addition, we are very excited to read the entrants’ work when our prize opens in January 2023.” 

Damien Mosley, director of Indie Novella, added: “We are thrilled to be working with Watson, Little, and even more thrilled to read the work of some incredible writers. Over the last year, Indie Novella has worked with both Watson, Little and the Arts Council England to reach an array of remarkable emerging writers through our writing course and our in-person writing workshops in Hackney, London. I am looking forward to reading stories from across our wide, varied communities and really hope we receive a wide range of voices, sharing their unique perspectives on life in today’s society”. 

The prize is open to writers aged 16 and over living in Britain (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) and Ireland (Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland). Entries must be entirely the work of the entrants, who should submit their opening 5,000 words, plus a 3,000-word synopsis which should form the first page of their submission document. Longlisted entrants will be asked to submit their full manuscript for the next stage of the judging process.  

Entries should be submitted between 1st January and 14th February 2023 (with the deadline closing at midnight, UK time on the 14th) via the Indie Novella website.

Those selected for the longlist will be notified by 31st March, and the shortlistees by 30th April. The winners and commended entries will be announced on 31st May 2023.  

Winning entries will receive a one-page report and one-hour session from an agent at Watson, Little. If, after this process, the finished novel is suitable, Watson, Little literary agents will have first option to represent the winner and to offer it to publishers. Additionally, winners and commended entries will receive a short written report from Indie Novella, with critical appraisal from all judges, and an extract of their novel will feature in an exclusive prize anthology, made available as a memento for participants, containing exclusive artwork created for participants by Indie Novella creative director Callum Hood. 

There is no application fee. Further information, including terms and conditions and how to enter, can be found here.