Novel London Literary Festival 2020
This year's festival transitioned online and we received entries from as far as Australia and California!
WINNERS
Aisling Watters
1st Prize
Novel London Trophy
- £500 Cash Prize
- Faber Academy Manuscript Assessment
Aisling Watters is twenty-eight. She lives in Wexford, south-east Ireland and she has a BA in English, Sociology and Politcs from NUI Galway and an MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature from University College Dublin.
She was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2020 and is represented by Elise Dillsworth.
Rupi Gohlar
2nd Prize
£300 Cash Prize
- 6 month Writing Mentorship with Nadine Matheson
Rupi Gohar has BA in English Literature (2.1 with honours) from the University of Sheffield and postgraduate course in Journalism and Editorial training with the Trinity Mirror Group as well as a Novel Writing and Longer Works course at the City University of London. She worked as a Senior Journalist and Features Writer for a number of years before moving on to a career in Communications and PR.
Same Same But Different is her debut novel.
Simon Cowdroy
3rd Prize
- £100 Cash Prize
- Bespoke Coaching With Melanie Abraham of Renaissance One
Simon lives as part of a dog dominated family near Melbourne, Australia. He returned to fiction in 2017 after a long absence and in 2018 two of his initial pieces of Flash Fiction were published in Bath Anthology Three. In 2019 he joined UK based @VirtualZine as senior editor/reader. In 2020 he repeated his flash fiction success with a runner-up prize at Bath Flash Fiction out of 1461 entries.
His first crime novel, Cut of a Knife, was a Pitch Perfect finalist at Bloody Scotland in 2018.
Judges
ELISE DILLSWORTH became a literary agent in 2012. She was a commissioning editor at Virago Press, an imprint of Little Brown Book Group.She co-founded the Diversity in Publishing Network, which received the New Venture Award from Women in Publishing in 2005.She has been a judge for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bocas Fiction Prize, SI Leeds Prize, the London Short Story Prize and the Northern Writers’ Awards.
BOBBY NAYYAR is a writer, publisher and programme manager. He started his publishing career in 2005, when he became the first recipient of an Arts Council England bursary to train in publishing at Faber and Faber. He went on to join the marketing department at Little, Brown Book Group.In 2009, he founded his own publishing house, Limehouse Books. He has also managed Equality in Publishing, helping to set up the Publishing Equalities Charter and worked at Wasafiri Magazine. In 2018, he joined Spread the Word, London’s writer development agency, as programme manager working on their London Writers Awards project, prizes and workshops..
Novel London Literary Festival 2020
This year's Novel London Literary Festival took place on Saturday 26th September & Sunday 27th 2020. It included a series of practical and inspirational workshops and seminars, focusing on developing writers in the present and the future.
SAT 26 SEPT
Melissa Addey won the first Novel London Literary Competition Prize last year, which was held at Foyles Bookshop in London with her novel, The Cold Palace - Book 4 of The Forbidden City Series.
For the online 2020 Novel London Festival, Melissa taught a workshop on the fundamentals of writing and marketing.
Melissa Addey writes historical fiction set in China, Morocco and Ancient Rome. She was the 2016 Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library and has taught many students about writing and marketing.
She spent fifteen years in business before becoming a fulltime author. She recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey which included writing The Garden of Perfect Brightness for her Chinese series and looking at the importance of fiction in historical fiction.
She lives in London with her husband and two children.
SAT 26 SEPT
In this seminar, Nadine Matheson and Melanie Abraham will be discussed the importance of finding the right mentor and coach during the developmental phase of your writing.
Melanie Abrahams is the founder of Renaissance One and Tilt. As an active freelancer in the creative industries, she consistently pushes for greater diversity in the arts, with a focus on narratives of race, class, mixed-race identities and intersectionality.
Nadine Matheson has always been passionate about writing and storytelling. She was born and lives in London and is a Criminal Solicitor. In 2016, she won the City University Crime Writing Competition and completed the Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller Novels) MA at City University of London with Distinction in 2018. She is the author of Jigsaw Man, which is currently available for preorder.
READINGS
SUN 27 SEPT
Judged by top literary agent, Elise Dillsworth and Publisher and Programme Manager, Bobby Nayyar, this year's Novel London Literary Competition was open to international entries.
This year's shortlist featured Aisling Watters, Bren Gosling, Claire Mitchell, Pippa Brush Chappell, Rupi Gohlar & Simon Cowdroy.
1st Prize
- £500 Cash Prize
- Faber Academy Manuscript Assessment
Won by Aisling Watters
2nd Prize
- £300 Cash Prize
- 6 month Writing Mentorship with Nadine Matheson.
Won by Rupi Gohlar
3rd Prize
- £100 Cash Prize
- Bespoke Coaching With Melanie Abraham of Renaissance One.
Won by Simon Cowdroy
Novel London Literary Festival 2020
This year's Novel London Literary Festival took place on Saturday 26th September & Sunday 27th 2020. It included a series of practical and inspirational workshops and seminars, focusing on developing writers in the present and the future.
SAT 26 SEPT
Melissa Addey won the first Novel London Literary Competition Prize last year, which was held at Foyles Bookshop in London with her novel, The Cold Palace - Book 4 of The Forbidden City Series.
For the online 2020 Novel London Festival, Melissa taught a workshop on the fundamentals of writing and marketing.
Melissa Addey writes historical fiction set in China, Morocco and Ancient Rome. She was the 2016 Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library and has taught many students about writing and marketing.
She spent fifteen years in business before becoming a fulltime author. She recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey which included writing The Garden of Perfect Brightness for her Chinese series and looking at the importance of fiction in historical fiction.
She lives in London with her husband and two children.
SAT 26 SEPT
In this seminar, Nadine Matheson and Melanie Abraham will be discussed the importance of finding the right mentor and coach during the developmental phase of your writing.
Melanie Abrahams is the founder of Renaissance One and Tilt. As an active freelancer in the creative industries, she consistently pushes for greater diversity in the arts, with a focus on narratives of race, class, mixed-race identities and intersectionality.
Nadine Matheson has always been passionate about writing and storytelling. She was born and lives in London and is a Criminal Solicitor. In 2016, she won the City University Crime Writing Competition and completed the Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller Novels) MA at City University of London with Distinction in 2018. She is the author of Jigsaw Man, which is currently available for preorder.
READINGS
SUN 27 SEPT
Judged by top literary agent, Elise Dillsworth and Publisher and Programme Manager, Bobby Nayyar, this year's Novel London Literary Competition was open to international entries.
This year's shortlist featured Aisling Watters, Bren Gosling, Claire Mitchell, Pippa Brush Chappell, Rupi Gohlar & Simon Cowdroy.
1st Prize
- £500 Cash Prize
- Faber Academy Manuscript Assessment
Won by Aisling Watters
2nd Prize
- £300 Cash Prize
- 6 month Writing Mentorship with Nadine Matheson.
Won by Rupi Gohlar
3rd Prize
- £100 Cash Prize
- Bespoke Coaching With Melanie Abraham of Renaissance One.
Won by Simon Cowdroy
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
http://www.renaissanceone.co.uk - https://www.faberacademy.co.uk
