#Merky Books to publish New Writers' Prize winner Sufiyaan Salam’s ‘blistering’ debut

Stormzy’s Penguin Random House UK imprint, #Merky Books, has snapped up Sufiyaan Salam’s Wimmy Road Boyz. The book won the New Writers’ Prize 2024, which aims to discover unpublished and underrepresented writers aged 18-35, and awards them a publishing contract with the imprint.

Commissioning editor Linda Mohamed acquired world rights including film and TV from Liv Maidment at Madeleine Millburn Literary, TV & Film Agency. #Merky Books will publish the book in spring 2026.

"Set over the course of a single, surreal night, Wimmy Road Boyz follows three British-Muslim men in their early 20s who drive up and down Manchester’s Curry Mile, bringing all sorts of baggage with them," the synopsis says. "In pursuit of a wild time, these boys don’t yet know that their first night out in so long will also be their last."

Mohamed said: "As soon as I read the first few lines of Wimmy Road Boyz, I knew Sufiyaan’s novel was something special. It is blistering, astute and chaotic in the best way. It captured my attention from the get-go and left me craving more. Sufiyaan explores class politics, masculinity, faith and the hardships of being in your twenties with a feverish energy on the page that I found absolutely addictive."

Salam added: "It’s been such a trip getting these crazy, yapping characters out of my head and onto the page, and I couldn’t be happier working on the novel with the combined talent of my agent Liv Maidment, my editor Linda Mohamed and the #Merky Books team. The previous New Writers’ Prize winners have all set a ridiculously high bar and I can’t wait for Wimmy Road Boyz—an ode to chaotic friendships set amidst the cacophony of the Curry Mile—to sit alongside them."

Previous winners of the prize include Jyoti Patel, an Observer Debut Novelist in 2023, Monika Radojevic, whose second work publishes with the imprint next March, and Will Hunter, whose debut novel Sunstruck will be published by #Merky Books in May 2025.