We are delighted to announce The Bath Novel Award 2018 shortlist.

The Bath Novel Award is an annual £2,500 prize for unpublished and independently published novelists writing for adults or young adults. This year’s prize attracted 1,201 submissions by writers in 38 countries worldwide with a longlist of 24 novels announced in May.

2018 has proved to be an exceptionally strong year for novels about displacement and the pursuit of truth. We have feared and cheered for: a young Nigerian housemaid; three London schoolgirls; an escapist boater in Tenerife; Ugandan Asian shopkeepers and a secret team of international literary agents fighting a rewrite of the world.

The winner of The Bath Novel Award 2018, as judged by Felicity Blunt of Curtis Brown Literary Agency, will be announced at a reception in Bath’s Victoria Art Gallery on September 13th. The winning novelist will receive £2,500 and one longlisted writer will also win a place worth £1,800 on Edit your Novel the Professional Way from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.

 

As all our judges read “blind” we’ll be keeping the shortlistees’ identities under wraps until the winner is announced on September 13th 2018, but in the meantime, many congratulations to the writers of these five standout titles:

INKLAND

KOLOLO HILL

THE AUSPICE           

THE FURIES

THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE

Read: The Bath Novel Award 2018 longlist announcement 

NOW OPEN

Submissions are invited from unpublished and independently published novelists writing for children or young adults.

2018 judge: Hilary Delamere of The Agency will pick the winning novel from a shortlist chosen by a team of Junior Judges aged from 7 to 17.

£2,500 prize, full competition details here