Announcing the Discoveries Prize winner 2023
BY Discoveries
1st Jun 2023
Curtis Brown Creative and Curtis Brown proudly partner with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries, a unique writing development prize and programme for aspiring female novelists, now in its third year. This year’s judging panel was chaired by Kate Mosse, bestselling novelist, playwright and Founder-Director of the Women’s Prize; Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown literary agent; Anna Davis, Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative writing school; and esteemed novelists, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Chibundu Onuzo.
We're delighted to announce the winner of the 2023 Discoveries Prize, selected by our judging panel from the record-breaking near 3,000 entries received this year.
The winner of the prize is Paige Cowan-Hall, with her historical fantasy novel Marooned. Paige is writing a vividly imagined historical fantasy set in Jamaica, based on the real-world stories of the Maroons, runaway slaves who fought the British and founded the Maroon settlement. As the winner of Discoveries 2023, Paige receives an offer of representation by Curtis Brown, a cash prize of £5,000 and a place on a Curtis Brown Creative six-week online course. In July, she will also join Curtis Brown Creative’s specially designed two-week Discoveries Writing Development course alongside the other 15 writers longlisted for Discoveries 2023.
We are also very pleased to announce that Manchester-based writer and puppeteer Louisa Ashton is this year’s Discoveries Scholar. Louisa’s speculative novel Build Her With Green explores the relationship between humans and plants in a post-apocalyptic setting. Louisa wins a scholarship place on a three-month Writing Your Novel course with Curtis Brown Creative, where she will receive expert tuition to further develop her novel.
- Chair of judges Kate Mosse said: ‘The works-in-progress of both our winner Paige Cowan-Hall and scholar Louisa Ashton had everything any reader would want from a novel – distinctive voice, imagination, passion, exhilaration, beautiful writing. Most of all, each of the judges was desperate to have more and to follow these two very different stories through to the end. Congratulations to Paige and to Louisa, a huge thank you to my fellow judges, the hardworking team of readers at Curtis Brown and Curtis Brown Creative, and to everyone at Audible who is helping us develop Discoveries into a powerhouse of new writing.’
- Curtis Brown literary agent Lucy Morris and Curtis Brown Creative founder and Director Anna Davis said: ‘We’re thrilled to celebrate this year’s Discoveries winner, Paige Cowan-Hall, who takes a fascinating historical story, makes it thoroughly her own and brings it to electrifying life in Marooned. We’re also delighted to be offering a place on a Curtis Brown Creative three-month novel-writing course to our Discoveries Scholar, Louisa Ashton, to work further on her wildly imaginative speculative novel, Build Her With Green. Our warmest congratulations to both writers, and to this year’s wonderful shortlist.’
Read on to learn more about our talented winner and scholar.
Winner
Paige Cowan-Hall, Marooned
Paige Cowan-Hall is a London-based writer and the child of second-generation Jamaican immigrants. She wrote her first book at 16 by hand, spending the summer scribbling in her room. She went on to study English Literature at Exeter University, but her love for fantasy, folklore and mythology started before then, when her older brother would tell her stories of the Ancient Greeks. The tragic Achilles, the heroic Hercules, the witch Circe. However, growing up she began to notice a void, as if mythology and fantasy did not exist for people that looked like her. Since then, she has immersed herself in West African and Caribbean lore, which have become a core theme of her writing.
She is the winner of 2021’s Desperate Literature award for her short story ‘Ohenemaa’ and an awardee of the Spread the Word programme.
- How does it feel to be the winner of Discoveries 2023? It still hasn’t quite sunk in to be honest. I’m so excited not just to win but to have the chance to develop my writing through the Curtis Brown Creative courses. Honestly, for me winning is proof that whatever doubts you have, whatever voice in your head tells you ‘you aren’t good enough’, go for it anyway. If I’d listened to my doubts I wouldn’t have entered, and I wouldn’t have won.
- What initially inspired your novel-in-progress? I heard about the Maroons and particularly about Jamaica’s national hero Nan as a child. As I got older my interest to learn more about Maroon society and the Maroon wars with the English grew, as did my interest in folklore surrounding Jamaica and West Africa. The more I read about the history and mythology, the more scenes starting popping into my head, and it was one of these random moments of inspiration that started my novel.
- Are there any locations that have a special connection for you or your novel-in-progress? Jamaica, especially the Blue Mountains where Nan of the Maroons is supposed to have lived. In fact, Maroon communities still live in Jamaica, and a dream would be to visit them and the Centre for Reparation Research, to learn more and ensure my story respects the history and indigenous communities.
- Where do you like to write? Ideally, by a lake or the sea but as I live in London the spot in the living room by the window is cosy.
Scholar
Louisa Ashton, Build Her With Green
Louisa is a Manchester based writer and puppeteer, but she secretly wants to live in Malta where her mother's side of the family heralds from.
Coming to higher education later in life, she read English Literature at The Open University whilst working as a writer for theatre. She particularly enjoys working with theatre companies to develop and devise innovative work that uses puppetry in interesting ways. Occasionally, she's lucky enough to tour the globe as a puppeteer and so she's accustomed to writing scripts and short stories in mouldy B&Bs and in the back of touring vans (depending on the state of the suspension).
She is now working on her first novel after gaining a Creative Writing MA at the University of Manchester.
- How does it feel to be named the 2023 Discoveries Scholar? It’s so overwhelming and I'm over the moon to be named the 2023 Discoveries Scholar! It's a massive honour – thank you to all the judges and readers who were a part of the process. It can be daunting, entering a scheme like this when you’ve never had a single thing published before, but this goes to show that the risk is always worth it. I'm excited and grateful to have the chance to keep developing Build Her With Green with the support of Discoveries.
- What initially inspired your novel-in-progress? My house mate owns an incredible collection of tropical and carnivorous plants, and I became obsessed with researching their evolutionary histories. I began to wonder what might happen if a plant species was given the opportunity to continue their evolutionary trajectory at a heightened rate. What wonderous things would they grow to do? How would humans react? In what uncanny and strange ways would we fear, love, humanise, villainise or abuse them?
- Are there any locations that have a special connection for you or your novel-in-progress? A place that holds a special significance to me and my novel would be the Wythenshawe Park community greenhouses, which are open to volunteers. After lockdown eased in Manchester, these greenhouses became a sanctuary for me as I grieved the loss of my mum who died during the pandemic. I was a mess of a human being back then, but I would drag myself to the greenhouses and bury my hands in soil for hours. I’m so grateful to the head gardeners for putting up with me! Those greenhouses saved me.
- Where do you like to write? I’ve converted a tiny storage room in our house into a workshop and office. I have a desk facing one wall and directly behind me stands some workshop shelves full of books, sewing materials, tools and random disembodied puppet limbs! I recently inherited a lot of my mum’s old dressmaking materials, which I use when I’m working on theatre and puppet making commissions. It’s a bit chaotic, but I love having a creative busyness around me when I’m writing at my desk.
Thank you to everyone who entered their novels-in-progress to this year's Discoveries Prize. We were blown away by the breadth of genres and quality of work submitted.
Watch this space, the 2024 Discoveries Prize will open for submissions this September.