We are pleased to announce the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2019 longlist. With 965 manuscripts submitted between June 17th and November 17th, 2019 has proved our most competitive year to date and we were delighted by the standard.
2019’s longlist features writers in Belgium, China, the UK and USA. Six writers are returning listees: one with a revised draft and five with new manuscripts. One returning writer has two new manuscripts on the list.
This year the majority of submissions were aimed at middle grade readers. Other notable general trends include: an unusual number of novels featuring environmental themes; libraries and ghosts.
By genre, the listed manuscripts are: fantasy (4); magic realism (3); historical (3); steampunk (3); adventure (2); dystopian (1); ghost (1); horror (1); and speculative (1)
As our judges read “blind” we’ll be keeping author names under wraps until February 13th when 2019 judge, Lauren Gardner of Bell Lomax Moreton literary agency will announce the winning novel at a ceremony here in Bath. We will also announce the recipient of the longlist prize of a place, worth £1,800, on Cornerstones Literary Consultancy’s online course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way.
In the meantime, many congratulations to the writers of these 19 standout titles.
| 1666 |
| Astrid Greycloak Versus the Otherworlds |
| Everything That Came After |
| Ghostcloud |
| Hold Me in the Shadow of Your Wings |
| Jack in Time |
| Moonshine River |
| Penny Bloom and the Truly Horrible Things |
| Reef |
| Sea Change |
| Sea of Liars |
| Stargap |
| The Badly Born |
| The Curiosity Locker |
| The Fourth Age of the Great Space Whale |
| The Ghosts of Regents Terrace |
| The Museum of Emily |
| The Sky Over Rebecca |
| The Witch of Needle Falls |