How to prepare your entry to Discoveries 2027

Curtis Brown Creative are delighted to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust, The Curtis Brown Group and Audible to run Discoveries for a seventh year! This is an annual writing development programme for unpublished women writers currently residing in the UK or Ireland. The prize accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction.

To enter, all you need to do is submit…

The opening of your novel – up to 10,000 words

A synopsis detailing the outline of your story – up to 1,000 words

Find out more about Discoveries, the prize packages on offer and how to enter here.

This year's expert panel of judges is chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prizes. She is joined by bestselling authors Oyinkan Braithwaite and Ela Lee; Curtis Brown literary agent Ciara Finan; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative Anna Davis.

When asked to share their top tips for entrants, here’s what the judges said . . .

‘Follow your instinct, trust your gut and write. Don’t waste time worrying about what makes sense and what is feasible. Writing can be one hell of an adventure, if you allow it.’ – Oyinkan Braithwaite

‘We often talk about the importance of writing a strong opening, but this can be intimidating when you first sit down to write. Allow yourself to start writing into your novel in whatever way is helpful to you – you can revisit it much later in the process, when you’re clearer about where your story really needs to begin.’ – Anna Davis

‘Remember that perfectionism kills creativity. If you are just starting out, you need to allow the writing to be bad. It will be bad, but that is where every writer starts! Set a timer for 20 minutes and, without any distractions, commit to just writing for that short span of time. A blank page can be the most daunting thing, but you just need to start and not expect what you write to be a fully formed piece of work.’ – Ciara Finan

‘Begin with the truest thing. There’s so much outside noise, comparison and anxiety that often that feels impossible to ignore. How I cut through all the distractions when I need to write is to begin with the truest, most affecting, sober (or not) feelings I have. What nebulous thoughts I keep coming back to, or what I lie awake thinking about at night. I start by trying to distill whatever that is into words, and from there the story flows.’ – Ela Lee

‘I’m convinced that regularity – that’s to say, writing something, anything, every day – is the key to getting a novel started (and finished!). It doesn’t have to be much – a description of a woman reading on the bus, a man looking at his watch, a child being pushed on a swing, just get used to putting words down on the page. The more normal writing feels, the more easily the story, ideas and characters will flow.’ – Kate Mosse

So, how do you make sure you’re presenting your story and unique narrative voice in the best way? Here’s our advice on how to perfect your submission to Discoveries.

OPENING

The openings of books are incredibly important; a good opening will hook your reader and compel them to keep turning the pages.

Make your opening 10,000 words the best they can be by:

Getting quickly into your story. Writers often make the mistake of spending a lot of time on scene-setting or introducing characters one by one with lots of information about their personal histories before they actually start the real action of the story. Move straight into the action to engage the reader fully.

Remember, openings don’t need to be explosive. An unusual exchange between characters can be as dramatic as a man bursting into a room with a gun. Your opening should set the tone for the novel which follows it.

Don’t open with clichés. We’d love to see something fresh, new and intriguing. Unless you have a twist on these well-worn tropes, avoid openings with people waking up in the morning, characters staggering around with hangovers or long passages about the weather or rather generic landscape. Start strong with a scene that hook us in immediately – something which makes the reader curious, asks a question that we want to know the answer to or establishes a mystery which must be solved.

Establish the necessary context quickly. We need to know, rapidly, where we are as readers. If your novel is set in the past, drop some clues very early as to when the action takes place. If you’re writing within a particular genre, we should know this early. Likewise, we should meet your protagonist as soon as possible – avoid describing them at length instead you should show them in action. Help us to settle quickly into your story so that we can lose ourselves in it.

The most important thing about an opening is that it should be the best point-of-entry to the story. You might have started out by writing a scene, or even many scenes, that felt vital at the time, but which are actually backstory. Perhaps you’ll realise that your story really starts at what is currently Chapter 2 or 3. If your original opening isn’t the right point-of-entry, don’t be afraid to change it.

Finally, before you press submit. Read over your material. Yes, we do think it’s a good idea to print out your material and sit with a pen in your hand to make edits on the physical page before you type up your changes and enter Discoveries 2027. It’s also a good idea to read your work out loud to yourself to see how it sounds – particularly when you have lots of dialogue.

SYNOPSIS

We do know, of course, that it’s hard to write a great synopsis before you’ve finished writing your novel. But give it your best shot. We’d like to see a good one-page synopsis (up to 1,000 words but do keep it a bit shorter than that if you can – around 500 words should be adequate) to show us where your story is headed.

Here’s what you should include:

One-line pitch. Start with a sentence which tells us what’s really at the heart of your story – this is, essentially, your one-line pitch. If that’s impossible for the kind of book you’re writing, head your synopsis up with a line from your novel which carries some of its flavour.

Give us the brushstrokes of your story. We want to know the through-line of your plot. Try to be clear and concise, and don’t drop in lots and lots of character names, settings and minor events. If you have a twist in the tale, it’s up to you as to whether you want to include that in the synopsis, but we should certainly get the arc of your story.

Discoveries encourages you to submit your unfinished manuscript – we understand that your story may develop and change – we aren’t expecting the synopsis you submit to be followed to the letter just be sure to give us the big picture of your narrative. Should you be long or shortlisted, an updated synopsis won’t affect your chances of winning.

If possible (and without being too corny about it) try to get some of the tone of your novel into your synopsis so that it reads entertainingly and not like a characterless business document. A synopsis rarely works if it is written from the protagonist’s point of view or written in a first-person perspective. So, we recommend writing it in the third-person.

Remember – this is an overview of your novel, not a detailed plan. We don’t need full chapter-breakdowns – just the key points of your story.

Avoid putting in any value judgements about your own work. This isn’t a blurb on a published novel. Don’t tell us it’s going to be the next bestseller or that it’s gripping and moving etc. Frankly, we’ll be the judge of that!

TITLE

Make sure that you give your novel a title. It doesn’t matter if you change it later – it’s still better to have a working title than nothing. A title gives your book an identity. It will also make it much easier for the readers and judges to talk about it.

GENRE

Discoveries welcomes applications across all genres of adult fiction. Our entry form asks you to tick the genres that apply to your novel. Pick one or two genres (a hybrid of genres is welcome). If you can’t see your genre in the selection available in the entry form, don’t worry – pick the closest genre. You can always go on to include the genre in your synopsis. Be careful not to invent a genre that doesn’t exist. If you’re writing something that is difficult to categorise you might want to include a comparison title or two in your synopsis.

PROOFREAD

We’d love it if you could make sure that your work is pleasant for us to read. This is how we’d like you to do it:

Remember to proofread. Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Make sure you include paragraph breaks and set your dialogue out correctly with a new line for each new speaker – all of this makes your material easier to read by our judges.

Check that your word count does not exceed 10,000 words.

Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2027. We’re so excited to read your work!

Enter by 11 Jan 2027

Join us for a free Discoveries webinar! Your Novel: How to Get Started

Learn how to write a great opening that will inspire your readers to keep turning pages and uncover what the judges are looking for from submissions. The panel includes three Discoveries 2027 judges: Ciara Finan, a literary agent at Curtis Brown, and bestselling authors Oyinkan Braithwaite and Ela Lee. Jennifer Kerslake, Head of Courses at CBC, will chair the event. Join our free webinar on Thursday 12 November, 7.00pm to 8.30pm (UK time).

Sign up now

How to prepare your entry to Discoveries 2027

Curtis Brown Creative are proud to partner with the 

 for a sixth year. This is a unique novel-writing development prize and programme for women writers in the UK and Ireland, who have not been traditionally published in long form.

We're excited to reveal this year's winner and scholar, selected from a record-breaking number of 3,216 entries, chosen for the quality and promise shown in 10,000 words and a synopsis.

These titles were selected by Chair of Judges 

 CBE, international bestselling novelist and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize, and her judging panel: acclaimed authors 

 and Curtis Brown Creative’s founder 

The winner of the prize is Ruixi Zhang, with her witty and gripping literary thriller 

. Her novel-in-progress follows a young Chinese woman who marries a white man she cannot love in exchange for a visa, but life in London isn't all she hoped it would be. As the winner of Discoveries 2026, Ruixi receives an offer of representation by the Curtis Brown Group, a cash prize of £5,000 and a place on a Curtis Brown Creative six-week online course. In July, she will also join CBC’s specially designed two-week Discoveries Writing Development course alongside the other 15 writers longlisted for Discoveries 2026.

Additionally, Mirha Butt has been named this year’s Discoveries Scholar, winning a place on CBC’s flagship three-month Writing Your Novel course (worth £2,000) to further develop her work-in-progress. 

Notes from the Valley of Unclaimed Daughters

 is a multi-generational exploration of womanhood set against the 1990s Kashmiri insurgency. 

 ‘It was so hard to choose just one winner, and one scholar, from this year’s excellent shortlist – the future of fiction is in great hands with these six talented writers working on such inspiring novels. But in the end, we were all swept up by the intrigue, the skill and the pace of 

Notes From The Valley of Unclaimed Daughters

, we hugely admired the author’s ambition and her ability to spin a compelling story out of such complicated history. Congratulations to them both and thank you to my fellow judges for their hard work.’

Anna Davis, Curtis Brown Creative, and Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown, said:

 ‘For all of us on ‘Team Disco’ (the nickname for the core Discoveries team at Curtis Brown and Curtis Brown Creative), the thing we love most about our jobs is the opportunity to champion exciting new writing – and we’re hugely looking forward to working with this year’s talented winner and scholar, Ruixi Zhang and Mirha Butt, along with the rest of the vibrant shortlisted and longlisted writers through mentoring and courses. It’s utterly wonderful to see so many successful debuts emerging from Discoveries – and we warmly encourage more unpublished women to use the programme as motivation to start writing that novel you’ve been meaning to get around to, and then to keep going to the end.’

We can't wait for these writers to follow in the footsteps of the growing community of female novelists who first achieved recognition through Discoveries. In the past six years, writers previously longlisted have achieved an impressive number of deals and publications. Between 2024 and mid-2026, six Discoveries authors have published their debut novels, including Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin (2022 Shortlist) and Emma van Straaten (2021 Winner). 11 further authors are set to publish their debuts between now and 2027. Out of 80 longlisted alumni, 40% (32) authors have agents and 21% (17) have book deals, with many others still working on their novels.

Please find our interviews with Discoveries 2026 winner and scholar below.

Ruixi Zhang is an exophonic writer based in London. Born and raised in China, she studied English and psychology at Wellesley College, a women’s university in the US, before coming to the UK for an MA in comparative literature at the University of Oxford. Her debut short story appeared in Colorado Review. Her novel-in-progress was longlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2025. An alumna of the HarperCollins Author Academy, she has been awarded the Curtis Brown Creative Breakthrough Scholarship and the Faber Academy Scholarship.

She is currently working on her debut novel, 

How does it feel to be named the Discoveries 2026 winner? 

I am immensely grateful to the Discoveries judges and team, who see something in this dark little story that has, for the past three years, lived in my head and kept me awake at night writing. I also feel indebted to every mentor who has helped me cultivate my intellect and creativity along the way. Winning Discoveries marks for me the beginning of a long and exciting journey. I can’t wait to tell more stories in the years to come!

When I was a kid, I wrote stories and sentimental essays in Chinese. I began writing fiction in English in my early 20s, when I learned about authors like Yiyun Li, whose works showed me that it was possible to write beautifully in a foreign language. Around the same time, I also took a psychology course at university, in which we were asked to create a therapist and a patient character, and write fictitious transcripts of their conversations. That was the first time I wrote anything fictional in English, and the reason why I still enjoy writing dialogues the most!

What initially inspired your novel-in-progress?

 My novel was inspired by an image that popped up in my mind: Having just given birth to the child of a white man, a Chinese woman holds the newborn in her arms and is overtaken by a sense of alienation. This novel is the baby. Crafted in a language that is not mine, at times, it feels alien to me. It has invaded and colonised my mind, so that for days and nights I can only think in its language and logic. I have to write to make sense of this process of colonisation, and by doing so, resist it.

What key themes do you explore in your writing?

 Alienation and loneliness. I am eternally fascinated by the interiority of outsiders. In my novel-in-progress, there are a few characters who live on the margins for different reasons. I also like to read and write about unhappy marriages, all the illusions, delusions, and disillusionments created by two people who are stuck together in a small, confined space.

I entered Discoveries for the first time in 2025. I was not selected, which motivated me to improve my novel and enter again in 2026. I took the Writing Your Novel course and the Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course with CBC, which was made possible by the 

 scholarship (thank you!). I received invaluable feedback from my tutors Chris, Lauren, Anna, and my peers, which helped me interrogate every scene and hone my pitch.

Which female authors inspire you to write? 

Eileen Chang, Toni Morrison, Elena Ferrante, Ottessa Moshfegh. I love the psychological observations in their books, so sharp and full of insights. Many of their female characters have been called ‘unlikable’, which, I think, just means that they are unconventional women who are not afraid to show their teeth – all the more reason to like them!

What is the best piece of writing advice you've ever received? 

‘It’s about empathy.’ When I first started writing fiction in English, I felt very self-conscious about my linguistic abilities. I kind of apologised to my writing professor at university, Micah Nathan, when I handed in my first short story, saying that it was unreadable. He wrote on the blackboard the word ‘empathy’, and told me that fiction writing was not about the language, but about empathy and perspective-taking. This moment has stayed with me. I think, a good story, like empathy, transcends linguistic and cultural barriers, creating a moment of meaningful connection.

Notes From The Valley Of Unclaimed Daughters

Mirha Butt is a London-based public policy and research professional and a recent graduate of the LSE, raised in Watford. She is also an identical twin and the proud owner of a cat called Bibble! Her work centres the complexities of female relationships, whether in friendship, motherhood, sisterhood, or elsewhere.

, is set in Kashmir during the 1990’s insurgency and its aftermath. The novel was inspired in part by her grandfather, who was born in Azad Kashmir, and by his commitment to human rights and freedom from occupation.

How does it feel to be named the Discoveries Scholar for 2026? 

It feels surreal to have something so personal and quietly important to me recognised in such a huge way! As someone who's learned writing purely through reading and writing itself, I’m also so excited for the opportunity to further develop my novel through Curtis Brown Creative’s Writing Your Novel course. I’m hugely grateful to Discoveries, the team behind it, and the wonderful alumni and fellow longlistees I’ve met along the way.

I started writing when I was twelve, inspired in part by my mum, an English teacher who raised me on the belief that reading is good for the mind and soul. My first few attempts were, frankly, dreadful, but I adore them for the same reason I adore the work I write now: every word helped make me the writer I am.

 It began with my grandfather, who was born in Azad Kashmir and has a deep commitment to dignity, human rights, and freedom from occupation. From there, the novel grew into an attempt to understand how conflict echoes through families, especially through women’s lives. It became a story about memory, inheritance, and the things women carry for each other.

 I’m drawn to complicated womanhood, female relationships, and the beauty and pain of loving other women—in friendships, motherhood, sisterhood, and everything in between. I also explore grief, desire, inherited trauma, resistance, and the way ordinary life keeps going even when history is trying to kick the door down.

 I wanted exposure, community, and a reason to stop quietly doubting myself in a corner. As a young woman of colour, I’ve had a lot of imposter syndrome, so Discoveries felt like a real chance to meet like-minded writers and industry experts.

So many, but I keep returning to writers like Arundhati Roy and Kamila Shamsie for their ability to write politically urgent stories with so much emotional depth and beauty, and their refusal to flatten women into simple stories.

Your first draft probably won’t be good, and that’s actually the point. As a perfectionist, I tend to want every sentence polished before I’ve even finished the chapter, but the best advice I’ve had is simply: get the words down. Editing can come later. First, you have to give yourself something to work with.

Thank you once again to everyone who entered their novels-in-progress to Discoveries this year. We were deeply impressed by the variety of genres and topics explored as well as the quality of the writing.

You can read all about the Discoveries 2026 shortlist 

Watch this space, Discoveries 2027 will open for submissions this September. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when we open for entries.

Announcing the Discoveries Prize winner & scholar 2026

We’re delighted to share this year’s shortlist of six unpublished novels-in-progress selected from a record-breaking number of 3,216 entries, chosen for the quality and promise shown in 10,000 words and a synopsis.

Kate Mosse, Chair of Judges, said: ‘It has been so hard to select just six writers from our excellent longlist of sixteen. This year, we were blown away by the imagination, the ambition and the fresh perspectives highlighted in this wonderful range of work. As a new cohort of talented writers become part of the Discoveries family, we are also celebrating the success of authors previously longlisted and shortlisted. On behalf of my fellow judges, huge congratulations to this exceptional shortlist. We all – the Women’s Prize Trust, Curtis Brown, Curtis Brown Creative and Audible – are very proud to play a part in providing tangible support and resources to emerging writers and help their stories find the readership they deserve.'

Anna Davis, Curtis Brown Creative, and Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown, said: 'Judging Discoveries is always a real privilege. This year, we’ve loved the way our shortlisted writers have blended and subverted genre, twisting the familiar into something new and unique. They’ve explored compelling themes, expanded imaginations, and taken us on remarkable journeys. Beyond the final six, all of our longlisted writers are exceptionally talented – and 2026’s record number of entries has been a box of delights for our reading team. We encourage everyone to keep writing, and are already looking forward to Discoveries 2027!'

Each writer skilfully draws from their intimate personal histories and interests, infused with imagination, telling stories that reach across time, space and topics: immersing us in literary thriller, mythological reimagining, subverted fantasy, and body horror; transporting us to 1990s Kashmir, sixteenth-century Scotland and the folklore of West Africa; questioning power structures and the status quo, interrogating human-inflicted environmental decay, and examining alienation and othering.

Read on to meet the six writers shortlisted for Discoveries 2026.

How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2026?

 It feels genuinely surreal. I’ve always written just for myself, never really believing it was good enough for anyone else to read. Knowing that people see value in my work is deeply validating. In the space of two weeks, I’ve gone from 'this is just a fun escape from reality' to 'maybe I could actually become a published author'.

What key themes do you explore in your writing? 

I’m drawn to complicated womanhood, female relationships, and the beauty and pain of loving other women—in friendships, motherhood, sisterhood, and everything in between. I also explore grief, desire, inherited trauma, resistance, and the way ordinary life keeps going even when history is trying to kick the door down.

Uduak-Abasi Ekong is a Manchester-based Nigerian writer. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in 

. She was runner-up for the inaugural Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction and a winner of the 2025 Book Edit New Writers’ Prize. Her work has also been shortlisted or longlisted for the Bath Novel Awards, Exeter Novel Prize, Merky New Writers’ Prize, and Creative Future Writers’ Award. She is a 2026 SmokeLong Emerging Writer Fellow and a Faber Academy alumna.

How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2026? 

I thought the longlist was as good as it gets so I'm still in shock to find out I’ve made it to the shortlist. I'm honoured to be surrounded by such incredible talent and deeply grateful to the Discoveries Prize team for believing in my words.

 It was inspired by the inevitability of grief once you allow yourself to love deeply. I was interested in the intensity of that attachment and how far someone might go to hold onto a person they love, even after death has tried to separate them.

Melissa is a lecturer in film studies and literature at the University of York, where it’s her job to introduce unsuspecting English lit students to weird and wonderful bits of world cinema. As a researcher, she has published an academic book, Pepsi and the Pill, and several articles and chapters on gender and sexuality in film. After years of thinking about feminist and queer studies in her day job (and beyond it), she is now exploring these ideas and passions in more untamed forms through fiction. 

Literally incredible. I've reread the email a frankly embarrassing number of times to check it's real (I'm now 

 sure it is...). My self-belief in my writing has wavered a lot over the past few years, and I never thought I'd make it onto a list like this, in the company of such amazing writers - past, present and future.

Which female authors inspire you to write, or have shaped you most as a writer? 

is a huge influence on my novel. Jackie Kay’s short stories have always been really important to me too; no one quite captures the beauty and sadness of the everyday like she does. And my love of ‘disgusting women’ literature was sparked in my early twenties by Marie Darrieussecq. I’m really interested in écriture feminine, especially Hélène Cixous. Contemporary queer author Laura Kay has also been a brilliant mentor and inspiration.

After a hectic career living and working in South Africa, Norway, the Netherlands and Scotland, Jo hung up her construction helmet in 2023 and returned to England to fulfil a lifelong dream and write full time. Now Jo lives in the South of England and is an active member of her local writers’ group - Reading Writers - who she describes as the most supportive, talented group she could ever hope to meet. She lives with her husband, John, a professional artist.

So thrilled, lucky and grateful. I know how fine the margins are between writers' work and it's an honour to even be considered among such a group. Writing means so much to me, and this particular novel means everything because of the story it tells. Thank you Discoveries.

Are there any other locations that have a special connection for you or your novel-in-progress? 

I live in a village called Silchester, in Berkshire. Until 2024 I lived in Scotland and that inspired me to write my current novel, which is set there. I have previously lived in several other countries and feel especially connected to Norway. My husband is Irish and it is about time I got to know that wonderful country better. When it comes to writing, I'll follow a story anywhere it takes me, but tend to be inspired by where I am at the time.

Sithara Ranasinghe was born in Sri Lanka and raised in Loughborough. Her writing has been featured in 

. She posts niche historical deep dives on her Substack, Sithara’s Newslettara, and co-hosts the podcast Further Reading.

, aims to poke fun at fantasy tropes with as much love as possible.

The 'wait, are we the bad guys?' colonial themes in this novel are informed by her experience as a British Sri Lankan.

I'm mostly just shocked! I still can't actually believe that any of this is happening. It feels so amazing (and surprising!) to have made it to the shortlist. If I could pirouette, I would hit 500 of them really fast.

 When I was a kid, I would fold sheets of printer paper together and write 'books' about fairies and ghosts. I then moved onto writing very bad emo-flavoured second world fantasy in spiral-bound notebooks. With that, I think it’s fair to say I’ve been writing fantasy my whole life, but I only started taking it (somewhat) seriously very recently.

I feel like I have found a home as a writer. Since being longlisted, I have learned that Discoveries is much more than a writing prize: It is also a community of women writers who support and celebrate one another. I hope, or rather believe, that together we can create 'the poems of our climate' (to quote Wallace Stevens). I look forward to the exciting journey ahead, filled with new friends and more stories to tell!

 I entered Discoveries for the first time in 2025. I was not selected, which motivated me to improve my novel and enter again in 2026. I took the Writing Your Novel course and the Edit & Pitch course with CBC, which was made possible by the 

Congratulations to these fantastic writers! The winner announcement will follow on Thursday 28 May.

All six shortlisted writers will be offered a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent plus free enrolment on a Curtis Brown Creative 

One promising writer from the shortlist of six will be named the Discoveries Scholar. This writer will win a free scholarship to attend a three-month 

 course with Curtis Brown Creative (worth £1,900).

The winner will be offered representation by an agent from the Curtis Brown Group and a cash prize of £5,000.

Announcing the Discoveries Prize shortlist 2026

We’re delighted to share this year’s Discoveries longlist of 16 unpublished novels-in-progress chosen from over 3,000 entries. The reading panel and judges were swept away by the high standard of the work submitted and would like to thank all the brilliant writers who shared their novels-in-progress. Even if you didn’t make the 2026 longlist, we’d like to encourage you to keep writing! For the past two years, 20% of the longlist has been made up of writers who entered Discoveries in previous years – which speaks to the heart of our aims for this programme and prize – to uplift and encourage women writers to persevere and follow their writing dreams.

The longlisted titles were chosen by Chair of Judges 

Kate Mosse, Chair of Judges, said: ‘The sixth year of Discoveries shows what we have always known; namely, that inspiration, creativity and imagination can be found everywhere. It has been a pleasure to read so many extraordinary, original and excellent pieces of work-in-progress and it was incredibly hard to whittle down to our sixteen writers. Each of them has a unique voice and it is wonderful to see that women of all ages, from all backgrounds, are writing with ambition and courage in every genre of fiction. My heartfelt thanks to my fellow judges and to Curtis Brown, Curtis Brown Creative, and Audible for their support of this groundbreaking programme.’

This year’s longlist showcases talented women writing across a range of genres – from vividly imagined fantasy and tender romance to visceral horror and immersive historical fiction. Without further ado, we’re pleased to introduce the 16 writers longlisted for Discoveries 2026.

'Surreal, thrilling, and slightly like I’ve accidentally been let into a room I was only ever meant to peek into from the corridor. I’ve been writing since childhood and doubting myself almost as long, so to know there is value in what I’m writing means more than I can say. I’m especially excited to meet the other longlistees!'

This is What Happens When You Wear Purple

A lifetime ago (that’s how it feels) Jo worked in Child Protection: supporting troubled children and writing countless official documents, court reports, research papers, and a thesis. 30 years was long enough. She gave up work, abandoned her (adult) children, and set off round the world on her own.

She came home with more stories than people to listen. Write them, friends said. And so Over the Hill and Far Away was self-published in 2011. Jo never lost her love of travel – nor of writing. And so, she continued to play with words: short stories, a novel, as well as more travel writing.

The pandemic changed everything. After four difficult years she embarked on a Creative Writing MA with the Open University. Her sole aim, at the start, was to reconnect with her love of writing. Travels on the page, if you like. In the process of those studies, she discovered Maggie, and decided she needed a novel.

‘I am astonished – and humbled to think that my efforts have made it to the longlist. What an opportunity!'

Mary is an actor-turned-writer, having previously written for stage and screen. She has performed her own work on stage, and was a participant on the Hampstead Theatre INSPIRE playwriting scheme. She also wrote and acted in the short film ‘toni_with_an_i’ (BBC, BFI), nominated for TV BAFTA in 2020. Mary studied English Literature at Oxford University and now lives, works and writes in Oxford. She has a small Substack where she sometimes shares her past experiences as an actor. She recently completed the Advanced Historical Fiction course with Curtis Brown Creative, and

‘Unreal! Literally! It's an astonishing vote of confidence, which is hard to come by as a writer. I am extremely grateful.’

Rebecca is a TV journalist living in London. She studied her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Oxford University before getting her journalism accreditation during the dark days of Covid lockdowns.As a teenager, she won the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature short story competition. The prize was publication in an anthology and a ludicrously expensive fountain pen, which remained untouched for years, for fear of damaging it. She recently discovered it has started to rust in its box.Since then, Rebecca has continued to write short fiction until inspiration struck for the Big Novel Idea. It arrived last year, while talking to a friend about the wedding industrial complex. Her evenings are spent writing that, while by day she turns her hand to 

'I’m absolutely thrilled. As soon as I read the email, I had to screenshot it for proof, in case I had somehow imagined it! Self-doubt when writing can be so pervasive that I nearly abandoned this application, because I thought it was a pipedream. But having this endorsement for some of what I’ve written so far has lit a fire underneath me to keep on at it. Plus, I’ll forever have that happy email as a reminder to battle the niggling thoughts when they do creep up.'

‘I’m still in shock. This novel has lived with me for years so it means a great deal to see it recognised in this way. I'm grateful for the encouragement and excited about the work ahead. To anyone thinking about entering next year but feeling unsure, I was once in that position too, and you could be here as well.'

Aisling Flynn’s short fiction has been published by 

, among others, and broadcast by RTÉ. She was awarded Literature Bursaries by the Arts Council of Ireland for work on her writing in 2024 and 2025. In 2020, she was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award for her short story collection, Fox Teeth. She is a previous winner of Greywood Arts Winter Writing Residency Award and was shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story Prize. When not writing fiction, she is working on developing her first full-length play, 

, with her friends at Lost Train Theatre Company. She works in Dublin as a bookseller.

‘It feels like the kick that I needed to keep going. It came be hard to come across big pushes of encouragement such as this.'

Cleo is a writer living in London, raised between the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

She studied Writing for Performance at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2024. She is currently reading for an MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford.

Cleo’s short story ‘Dancer, All Legs Up’ won First Prize in the Bath Short Story Award 2025. She was shortlisted for the Alpine Theatre Fellowship in 2025, and her writing has appeared in exhibition for TEXTUS, in The Weasel Magazine and Oxford’s The Isis. Her stage plays have been performed at venues including the Science Museum and the University of Sussex.

 is a literary fiction about a young woman's survival, obligation and desire in a desolate hinterland.

‘I couldn't believe it when the email came in – I had to re-read it multiple times to check I wasn’t imagining it. It is so incredibly thrilling and encouraging to be longlisted for Discoveries 2026. This is my first time writing long-form fiction, and so it's a total surprise! It's really given me the momentum to write on.’

Jayaa is a student from the North of England and currently completing her undergraduate degree in Law. She has been reading and writing devotedly since childhood and if not doing these things, she’s probably at a concert. Her novel-in-progress, Growing Pains, follows the relationship between two young adults as they navigate a tumultuous transition from adolescence into adulthood.

‘Being longlisted was a complete surprise. I feel excited and very grateful! It was a wonderful email to receive, and extremely encouraging to know that the readers and judges enjoyed a part of my story.'

S.J. Ladds is a library assistant on the outskirts of Glasgow who dreams of one day seeing her own books on the shelves. She recently graduated an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction and has pieces of short fiction published in ejournals like 

. She was longlisted for the Cymera 2025 Prize for speculative short fiction and had her first novelette published in January of 2026.

‘Incredible… And slightly surreal. I'm still not entirely sure it's real. I woke up on my day off to an email notification and thought it was a shipping update on a parcel, so you can imagine my surprise when it was actually an email about the Discoveries Prize. And then I assumed it would be a very polite commiseration: thank you for submitting, unfortunately… But here we are! I'm a little bit shellshocked I think, but so unbelievably grateful.'

Marija Maher-Diffenthal is a Serbian-born writer who grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in St Albans with her three children and a cockapoo. She taught English and Drama in London for 10 years and this fueled her ambition to become a writer. After attending the Faber Academy in 2019 she started writing a YA trilogy but when her husband died in 2021 her experience of dealing with grief gave birth to a new story about what we’d sacrifice to see our loved ones again. Her longlisted novel-in-progress, 

, is a work of fiction, though sometimes she wishes it wasn’t.

‘I am beyond thrilled to be longlisted for Discoveries 2026. I had to read the email several times to convince myself I wasn’t imagining it. It feels incredibly validating to have such esteemed judges read your work and find merit in it. As an unpublished writer, you never really know if your writing is actually any good or if you’re just delusional so this is much needed reassurance for me and a huge confidence boost.'

Liz K. Linh Nguyễn grew up in Hà Nội, Việt Nam. At 14, Liz moved to Lancashire to attend boarding school. She currently lives in London with her husband, cat and two rescue dogs. She works in Management Consulting – but has always dreamed of writing a novel. Liz’s novel, Phụng, is inspired by the places that shaped her. 

 is a dual coming-of-age story across two Vietnamese post-war generations – of a son who loses his mother, and of the mother before she has a son. 

‘Surreal. I opened the email and expected it to be a gentle rejection. I had to read the email twice to realise that I have in fact been longlisted. It is an incredible confidence boost.'

‘I still have a sneaking suspicion it’s all been an incredible fever dream. I got the email in the middle of a busy train station, and I’m not sure how I managed to stop myself screaming loud enough to cause a security incident. There are so many phenomenal women on the judging panel and knowing that they’ve read my work and made a connection with it is just the most humbling thing.'

‘I made a strange sound somewhere between a yelp and a squeal, which startled my poor dog from her nap. I feel thrilled, thankful, inspired, and at a loss for any more adjectives. Honestly, I didn't expect to be picked. I submitted my entry and did my best to forget about it. When I got the email I had to read it twice. And the next day I read it again because I was so certain I must have misremembered it. Thank you so much, Discoveries.’

‘I'm still in disbelief, so much so that when I first got the email, I didn't open it because I assumed it was a rejection. (I'm very relieved Gmail bumped it with the "Received 2 days ago. Reply?" prompt!) Then, of course, I screamed and did a little jig and kicked my heels in the air like a chimney sweep in a musical. And then I told my family, who did the same.'

Halina Watts is a freelance showbusiness journalist and mum, who currently lives in London. Her novel-in-progress 

explores issues of human consumption, the way we devour then discard humans for personal enjoyment, and how to truly be in a body.

She is a graduate of UEA's MA in Prose Fiction where she started writing 

. She has been mentored by Leone Ross and James Young of the Hasting Writers Workshop and was awarded a scholarship to study with Jessica Andrews on her Writing The Body course at Faber Academy.

Her short story 'Claude' was published in Nearshore Magazine. Another short story 'Cake Baby' won second place in a London Writer's Salon Competition. It was also a finalist in a Women on Writing Competition.

‘It feels incredibly surreal – my initial response to the email was: Is this fake? Now as the shock settles, I feel delighted and incredibly grateful that this group of judges believe in my work. It has given me the incentive I really needed at this time to keep writing.’

'The news found me at a difficult time of my life. I had once again slipped into the bottomless pit of self-doubts while editing my manuscript. Then, there came a helicopter that lifted me out of this pit in an instant and showed me the sky. There was also a first-aid kit in this helicopter, which I could use if I fall into that pit again in the future. All this is to say, thank you, it means everything to me.'

Congratulations to these fantastic writers! All 16 longlisted authors have been invited to attend a bespoke online 

 course running over two weeks this summer, designed and hosted by Curtis Brown Creative with expert tuition from bestselling author Laura Barnett and a pitching session with agents from Curtis Brown. The longlisted writers have also been awarded a one-year Audible subscription.

The Discoveries 2026 shortlist of six writers will be announced on Thursday 14 May. The winner announcement will follow on Thursday 28 May.

The winner will be offered representation by Curtis Brown Literary Agency and a cash prize of £5,000.

Announcing the Discoveries Prize longlist 2026

CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries for a sixth year. This unique writing development prize and programme offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland. The prize accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction, with entrants invited to submit the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis.

Your opening line will help readers at every stage of the journey (from literary agents and competition judges to readers on the bookshop floor) decide whether to read on or put your book down.

The first line of a novel should invite readers to enter the world of your story. A really great opening sentence should do one of three things:

Tell us when and where the story is happening.

Set the tone for the novel and show us what genre we’re in.

These are not hard and fast rules, some authors choose a more experimental approach to their opening, and some manage to do all three things at once! 

To inspire you further some of the Curtis Brown Creative and Curtis Brown Discoveries team members have collated unforgettable opening lines from the books that have stayed with us this year. Keep reading to discover the book openings that hooked us and the reasons why these first lines are so successful.

Anna Davis, Founder & Director of Curtis Brown Creative

'It wasn’t ideal, navigating the Zagros Mountains on a freezing September night, wearing a trouser suit and ballet flats.'

What a terrific opening line! The idea of someone picking their way over an Iranian mountain range in very difficult conditions in such incongruous clothing is instantly absurd and comical – but it also immediately gets you thinking, why is this happening? And you quickly sense that this situation must be much darker than the jaunty tone of the narration …

, by former CBC student Nussaibah Younis, who was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and who is on our Discoveries judging panel this year!

‘The Universe was on fire. And the reason for this burning was a family at war with itself.’

This is one of the best openings I’ve read in a long time. In just a few short words, the stakes of the novel are immediately established – a family at war, a family so powerful that the universe is ablaze. It’s a striking way to begin a story, and the voice carries both weight and confidence, assuring the reader that they are in for a tale of epic proportions. Immediately, we find ourselves asking: Who is this family? What is the root of their disagreement, and how has it led to such catastrophic consequences?

Viola Hayden, Curtis Brown literary agent

‘It would be easy to say that it all started with the murders, but actually it began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.’

You’re really out of the blocks with this one. ‘It would be easy to say’; a lovely, conversational voice. ‘Murders’; you know you’re in for some sort of crime (or crime-adjacent) fiction, and there’s a very good chance there’ll be a mystery to unravel. ‘But actually it all began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minster’; subverts your expectation, surprising you from the get-go, sending you towards a new horizon of possibility. Margaret Thatcher becoming prime minster is also a neat showing-not-telling time stamp for the slightly period setting.

Jennie Godfrey is a former student of CBC flagship Witing Your Novel course.

'On my fourth birthday, I plucked six severed fingers from the shower drain.'

What a punchy opening! We know we are immediately in the depths of a tale of gory, bone chilling horror, but the casual, detached tone also implies a narrator who is numb to it, despite clearly being shaped by abnormal circumstances. This sentence delivers shock, but also establishes voice. It hints at trauma and plants a gripping central question, pulling the reader into a mystery that begs to be explained, slamming innocence and horror together in an unforgettable image. It also immediately helps a reader know whether this is a book for them or not!

Four words that launch you straight into the opening scene, repeated at the end of the first paragraph for a one-two punch as we complete the circle around the cabin with the camp counsellor, frantically counting children. Beds tend to contain people, so if it is empty that means someone has gone missing. As a reader, it’s just that half-second of putting the pieces together before the horror dawns on you, too. And you’re hooked! 

‘I only ever really talk about Dr Byrne with James Devlin, and so I always assumed that, were he to ever come back into my life, it would be through him.’

This opening dives straight into the messy relationships which make this novel so moreish. Rachel introduces us to James Devlin and Dr Byrne, and the way she does this tells us a lot. She’s clearly still in contact with James, as they still talk about Dr Byrne, whereas Dr Byrne has clearly been out of the picture for a while. Dr Byrne is also referred to by his title, which makes him feel even more removed, and introduces a potential power dynamic. We immediately want to know, who is Dr Byrne? And what happened that made him someone they talk about but aren’t in contact with? If it wasn’t through James, how did he come back into Rachel’s life and what were the consequences?

Katie Smart, Senior Marketing & Sales Manager at Curtis Brown Creative

‘I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me that he had murdered his wife.’

This is a brilliant and arresting opening line with T Kingfisher’s signature dry and dark humour. A perfect introduction to our poison expert protagonist and a great set up for the mysterious plot at the centre of the narrative. When you go in knowing that this is a Snow White retelling it is also a great opener because T Kingfisher immediately subverts the most well-known version of the tale in which it is the King the who dies at the start of the story and not his second wife.

Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2026. We’re so excited to read your work!

The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from 

How to craft a memorable opening line 

CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries for a sixth year. This unique writing development prize and programme offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland.

We’re delighted to share these highlights from our special Discoveries 2026 webinar, featuring novel-writing insights from international bestselling author and Discoveries judge Dorothy Koomson, bestselling author Laura Barnett, Curtis Brown agent Jess Molloy, and her client Rosie Rowell (winner of Discoveries 2025).

Plus, we’ve included a link to watch the full event recording for free – available for a limited time only.

Read on for advice on how to plan and write the opening 10,000 words of a novel, how to enter Discoveries 2026, and the importance of silencing your inner critic when you’re in the early stages of a first draft.

ROSIE ROWELL ON WRITING HER WINNING DISCOVERIES ENTRY...

 As most people who write will say, I wrote a huge amount as a young person, and then life just got in the way! Last year, I just decided to do a Curtis Brown Creative course. It was the 

 course. And I just thought to myself ‘I've got some time. I love having a creative outlet. I’ll just write something.’

So I wrote a first draft of a book, and I just couldn't let it go. And that’s when I came across Discoveries and decided to use it as a deadline for myself. I often find that the publishing industry can feel extremely impenetrable from the outside, and I think that Discoveries is an amazing way of getting some advice and just having people to share the process with.

 I think that the most important part of your book is the first three pages. Finish your 10,000 words, get them to the best shape you can, and then go back and rewrite the first three pages. Your job with the first three pages is to make sure that whoever picks it up, doesn’t want to put it down. This is why I like a prologue. You can put something in from further in the book at the very beginning to draw people in, and then you go back and explain who’s who and what’s going on.

 When I have an idea, it’s usually something completely random. I like to ask myself ‘What if?’ questions about the story, and when I get to about five ‘What if?’ questions, I realise that could become a book.

 I think the central question is definitely a good fracture test for any novel. For me, it’s more about a kind of seduction that the idea performs. I want it to feel heady and exciting and like meeting a friend or a lover or just someone who really 

you. As with getting to know someone in real life, it takes time to get under the skin of an idea. But when you feel that frisson of excitement about an idea, I would take that seriously.

ON SILENCING YOUR INNER CRITIC & NAVIGATING IMPOSTER SYNDROME

 I think that a lot of fear and imposter syndrome around writing comes when you're thinking too much about the end product. If you were someone who loved to write as a kid, think about the fact that there was never that critic. You were writing because you love to write. And that's a really nice thing to go back to when you're struggling. The process should be enjoyable, and it shouldn't always be about that end goal.

 When you’ve written a scene that is fairly dialogue-heavy, go back over it and rough it up around the edges. By which I mean, make sure that nobody is speaking too often in complete, grammatically perfect sentences with no long errs and no ellipses. That just isn’t realistic in real-life conversations.

 My number one tip is to always read out loud, because you immediately find all of those moments that should be contractions. I would also say, give yourself permission to be a really good eavesdropper! The more observations you can make about real-life conversations, the better.

 It’s not so much about your themes, it’s about your plot. We’re only seeing the first 10,000 words, we want to know that you’ve got the ability to keep the story going and to bring it to a satisfying conclusion. That’s not to say that what goes into the synopsis has to stay there, but it’s helpful for us to see that structure and to see the outcomes for each character.

If you start from a place of distilling your novel down to one or two lines that really sum up what is at the heart of the novel, and then make that bigger and bigger, that can be really useful. Hopefully then, you’ve got everything that needs to go in there, but not the extra baggage which is going to weigh it down.

 My biggest piece of advice would be just tell the story in the best way that you can, and be authentic. Be true to yourself. Think of the 10,000 words as your playground. Don’t be scared about the synopsis, the ‘About Me’ box, anything else, just focus on telling your story in the best way that you can.

 Make the most of the time available to you. If you only have 20 minutes when you’re sitting on the bus on the way to work, use those 20 minutes. I never ever write for a 12-hour luxurious stint. Make the most of whatever pocket of time you have, and then be consistent with it.

 Be brave in your writing. We have so many wonderful entries and the shortlist is a finite number. And if you don’t get onto it, continue to be brave and continue to write. Even just entering your work into the world of Discoveries is super nerve-wracking. But without stories, we don’t get books and we don’t get to connect with one another.

Your Novel: How to Get Started

We spoke to Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted author Dr Nussaibah Younis about her advice for writing dark humour, her favourite fictional characters and what she'll be looking for as a judge for Discoveries 2026.

 has garnered huge success, including being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025. What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learnt during the publication process and your time being a debut author?

has been embraced across the political spectrum and by people I would never have expected to engage with a satirical comedy about a UN program to deradicalize ISIS brides! I think a big learning is to never underestimate readers’ appetites for daring stories!

 is partially inspired by your career as a peacebuilding practitioner in Iraq. You also have a great love of stand-up (both watching and performing) which has informed the humour in your fiction. When it comes to writing satire and dark comedy whilst highlighting serious themes, do you have any advice for budding novelists?

I love placing my characters in situations they would hate, and forcing them to interact with people who would drive them nuts! You can have a lot of fun (and create a lot of humour) through bonkers juxtaposition.

Whilst you were writing your debut you studied on a stand-up comedy course as well as Curtis Brown Creative’s 

 course. What are the top takeaways you gleaned from both courses?

It’s crucial to have the courage to write badly for a long time. It’s only once you have a first draft, and have discovered the bones of your story, that you can start to really shape it into something special. Don’t let yourself get trapped polishing your opening chapters forever!

Who is your favourite fictional character?

One of my recent favourites is Flavia from the novel 

! Her repeated character assassination of her own therapist never fails to make me laugh.

What’s been your favourite book of 2025 so far?

 by Marcia Hutchinson is a gorgeously original, witty, and deeply moving novel about a precocious young girl growing up in 1960s Bradford. I think its brilliant, and highly recommend it.

We’re delighted to have you on board as a judge for 

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Discoveries

How to prepare your entry to Discoveries 2027

28th May 2026

Announcing the Discoveries Prize winner & scholar 2026

14th May 2026

Announcing the Discoveries Prize shortlist 2026

30th Apr 2026

Announcing the Discoveries Prize longlist 2026

11th Dec 2025

How to craft a memorable opening line

27th Nov 2025

Your Novel: How to Get Started

28th Oct 2025

Nussaibah Younis: 'Never underestimate readers’ appetites for daring stories'

21st Oct 2025

Ciara Finan: 'I want to read about worlds and settings I haven’t seen before'

14th Oct 2025

How to prepare your entry to Discoveries 2026

29th May 2025

Announcing the Discoveries Prize winner & scholar 2025

15th May 2025

Announcing the Discoveries Prize shortlist 2025