Announcing the Discoveries Prize shortlist 2024
BY Discoveries
2nd May 2024
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with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries, a unique writing development prize and programme for unpublished women writers, now in its fourth year.
We're excited to reveal this year's Discoveries Prize shortlist, comprised of six unpublished novels-in-progress from women writers currently residing in the UK and Ireland – chosen from nearly 3,000 women who submitted the openings of their unpublished novels-in-progress to Discoveries 2024.
The shortlisted novels-in-progress range in genre across fantasy, contemporary and historical fiction, social realism and societal comment, coming-of age stories and contemporary romance. From monsters in the dark to some very real monstrous figures of the 1970s; from ‘the one that got away’ to a complex open marriage; and from an intense co-dependent friendship in the present to the unexpected appearance of an enemy from the troubled past.
These six writers were shortlisted by a judging panel chaired by Kate Mosse, novelist, playwright and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction; Jess Molloy, Curtis Brown literary agent; Anna Davis, Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative writing school; and award-winning authors Natasha Brown and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.
- Kate Mosse, Chair of the Discoveries Judging Panel, said: ‘Our shortlist judging meeting was passionate, exciting, full of delight and debate, a real pleasure. The shortlist is a showcase of how women writers are embracing different genres and forms of storytelling, from gothic fantasy to historical reimaginings, from Britain in the 1970s to Ireland in the present day, the world of art to complex relationships in their complicated glory. We cannot wait to read the full novels and are certain that these six are writers to watch.’
- Anna Davis, Curtis Brown Creative, and Jess Molloy, Curtis Brown, said: ‘We both feel so privileged to take part in running and judging the Discoveries Prize: The sheer quality and diversity of material shared with our team of experienced industry readers this year was phenomenal – and this goes way beyond the shortlist that we’re celebrating today. We salute the almost 3,000 entrants who sent us the openings of their novels-in-progress, and we hope each and every one of them has embarked on a journey that will take them to amazing places. As to our wonderful 2024 shortlist – well, suffice it to say that the Discoveries Programme is very aptly named. We are so excited to see what these six talented women writers will go on to achieve.’
Without further ado, we’re excited to introduce the six talented writers shortlisted for the 2024 Discoveries Prize.
Niamh Connolly, Game Theory
Niamh Connolly is an Irish writer, who is currently completing her MA in Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has a BA degree in English and History from University College Cork. Her writing has appeared on The Gloss and in Life magazine of the Sunday Independent. Niamh writes to entertain. She feels most inspired when a character or idea takes up residence in her head and refuses to leave her alone. Her novel-in-progress is a retrospective love story, set in Ireland, dealing with bereavement, friendship, financial disparity, miscommunication and loneliness.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024? It feels wonderful. You have to have a lot of self-belief as a writer, especially when you don’t have an agent or a publishing deal – it’s generally just you at your desk believing in your project – so having this incredible panel of judges championing my novel is a lovely boost of confidence.
- Are there any locations that have a special connection for you or your novel-in-progress? West Cork. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. It’s my home. Many writers gravitate there. And when my narrator has to move to Ireland as a child, she finds herself living in West Cork.
Norwich has also become special to me. My Masters at UEA brought me to Norwich, and it’s the place where I started this novel, and it will be the place where I finish the first draft.
Alison Dudeney, Marsh End - The Darkness That Follows
A lifelong love of reading inspires Alison’s writing. Born in Surrey, she moved to Suffolk six months before the first lockdown. Redundancy from a career in the pharmaceutical industry was the catalyst for her to finally take writing seriously and study for an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Suffolk. As a writer and visual artist, the nearby Suffolk coastal marshland is hugely inspirational for her abstract painting, poetry and prose. A former psychiatric nurse and executive coach, she is intrigued by people's thinking and the way it drives their behaviour. Developing this interiority is an important aspect of character development in her writing.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024?
- I had to read the email from Discoveries 2024 several times for it to sink in! I still have to pinch myself, but I am absolutely thrilled and very proud that Marsh End has been Shortlisted. Having my novel-in-progress Longlisted was a complete surprise, there are so many undiscovered talented writers out there, so I feel incredibly lucky that my work has now been Shortlisted amid such fierce competition. The news has supercharged my motivation to finish my novel.
- What initially inspired your novel-in-progress? Remnants of WW2 defences along the Suffolk coast got me thinking about the trauma of war and how unique, lived experiences shaped people’s behaviour and their lives in the aftermath of WW2. I think it’s a topic still relevant today: how we live with the remains of trauma.
Iris has been a character in my head for a while now, and I struggled to find her story until the bones of my novel-in-progress, Marsh End emerged.
Alice Fletcher, The Hungry Dark
Alice lives in London and writes around the edges of a full-time job in communications. Growing up, she was a compulsive reader with a love of language, stories and imagining other lives and worlds. She went on to study English language and literature at university and, after a brief flirtation with journalism, found another way to work with words for a living. Her novel, The Hungry Dark, is a fantasy about family, loss, hope and the idea that some monsters are more monstrous than others.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024? I’m absolutely thrilled to have made the shortlist and can’t wait to be able to share the news. Writing can be a solitary process, so this kind of encouragement and community makes the world of difference. It makes me want to pick up a pen and keep writing!
- Where do you like to write? Tucked up on my sofa or in coffee shops, usually with a mug of hot chocolate or green tea. But it could be anywhere. I always carry a notebook in my handbag in case an idea or line of dialogue comes to me somewhere unexpected.
Zeynep Kazmaz, Viscid Residue
Zeynep grew up in Istanbul and currently lives in London. She runs a printing company (but has never printed a book she wrote) and a bookstagram account, successfully avoiding having to think about anything other than books.
Having spent her childhood writing stories full of misspelled words, she temporarily gave up on fiction to get a BA in History and an MA in History of Art. In 2019, she moved to London moments before a global pandemic started, where she spent the summer on her sofa working on her thesis and deciding that she wanted to go back to writing things that wouldn't require footnotes.
She often thinks (and sometimes writes) about being an immigrant who has love/hate relationships with both her old home and her new one.
She cries when she reads the acknowledgements at the end of a book.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024? I think I’m still in shock. This is genuinely the most exciting thing to have ever happened to me – I never thought anyone would read my words, let alone like them! For people (both authors and agents) whose work I’ve admired for so long to enjoy my writing is such an incredible honour.
- What initially inspired your novel-in-progress? When I moved to London, I unexpectedly found myself in a world that felt very alien to me – gallery openings, film screenings, overall schmoozy events – and felt that I was both in the midst of it and on the sidelines. That feeling is what got it going.
Georgia Moorhouse, Henry
Georgia lives in London where she writes alongside her career as a lawyer. Georgia’s interest in writing originated from her love of theatre, and throughout her teens and early twenties she wrote and directed several plays for local theatre groups and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Though still passionate about theatre, Georgia has become more interested in prose writing, particularly following the pandemic where books and reading became her anchor. Henry is her first novel and she hopes to write many more.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024? It feels like I’m in a daydream – to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024 is such an honour! I’m so grateful to the judges for the encouragement and validation this has given me and I feel so inspired to pursue my writing.
- Are there any locations that have a special connection for you or your novel-in-progress? I was at the Hay Festival when the first line of my book came to me. Hay-on-Wye is such a magical place for book lovers and I think it’s impossible not to be inspired while wandering through such a dizzying array of bookshops.
Nalisha Vansia, Not This Again
Nalisha grew up in Leicester before moving to London to study English Literature at UCL. She now works as an Editorial Assistant in publishing, happily getting paid to be constantly surrounded by books. Her favourite kind are contemporary literary novels that explore the messiness of love, identity and race. Inspired by photographs from her family in ‘70s and ‘80s Britain, her part-contemporary, part-historical novel Not This Again combines the British Asian writing of that period with a current storyline that speaks to her experience. Nalisha wrote it as a coming-of-age story for both generations.
- How does it feel to be shortlisted for Discoveries 2024? Once again, it is unexpected and all the more wonderful for it! The longlisting was a prize in itself and now the shortlisting comes with even more opportunities to grow, which I’m so grateful for.
- What initially inspired your novel-in-progress? The first iteration of Not This Again was a short story I wrote years ago about a teenage girl in 80s England figuring out her place in the world. From there, I realised I had more I wanted to grapple with and started to have fun with it, sitting down and planning out something bigger. I tend to get bored of my ideas quickly – but I’m enjoying working on this, and I’ve had the patience to carry on. This means something to me.
Congratulations to these talented writers! All six shortlisted writers will be offered a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent plus free enrolment on a Curtis Brown Creative six-week online course (worth £220).
The shortlist alongside 10 other writers longlisted for Discoveries 2024 have been invited to attend a bespoke online Discoveries Writing Development course running over two weeks this summer, designed and hosted by Curtis Brown Creative with expert tuition from author Charlotte Mendelson and a pitching session with agents from Curtis Brown. All 16 longlisted writers have also been awarded a one-year Audible subscription.
The winner will be announced on 23 May and will receive an offer of representation from Curtis Brown and £5,000. 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 Writing Your Novel course with Curtis Brown Creative (worth £1,800).