Fig Tree signs debut from ‘outstanding voice’ Grace Murray

Fig Tree has signed Blank Canvas, the debut novel by “blisteringly talented writer” Grace Murray. 

Assistant editor Ella Harold bought world rights, including television and film, from Emma Leong at Janklow & Nesbit. Harold worked with Murray on a year-long mentorship through Penguin Random House’s WriteNow scheme. Blank Canvas will be published as a lead debut in spring 2026. 

“Grace’s writing belies a certain rawness and intuition; her ability to observe characters with generosity (in its beautifully restrained prose) is wise beyond her years,” said Leong. “I am also in incredible awe of Ella and her luminous support to Grace in writing Blank Canvas.” 

A campus novel about grief, reinvention and connection, Blank Canvas is a “sensual, sharp and utterly compelling read”. Fig Tree stated that it “heralds the arrival of a new outstanding voice in literary fiction”. 

The novel follows Charlotte who returns to her final year at a small liberal arts campus and tells her fellow students that her father has died. However, 6,000 miles away her father is very much alive. As she comes “adept at controlling the many threads that hold her lie – and life – together”, everything is threatened when Charlotte’s father appears at her door while on a romantic holiday in Italy. 

Murray is currently in her final year studying English literature at the University of Edinburgh. She won her place on the WriteNow scheme from a 5,000-word sample. She commented: “I am so incredibly excited to join Fig Tree, and I am incredibly grateful for all the guidance Ella Harold has provided during each step of the process. Without the encouragement of Ella and the WriteNow team, Blank Canvas would have simply been a few ideas, typed out on a Google Docs page — and, even now, it still feels like a complete dream. I cannot thank everyone enough, and I’m so looking forward to sharing Blank Canvas with readers.”

Harold called the novel “an extraordinary achievement”. She continued: “Grace Murray is a wonderful observer of people and relationships. She writes her characters with such emotional intelligence, combining profound reflections on art, academia and social class, with utterly propulsive plotting. I have been so excited and impressed by Grace’s writing over the past year, and am honoured to be welcoming her to the Fig Tree list.”