Longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2021

A story that’s been with me for more than five years and has shifted and reshaped so much over that time, I finally completed a full draft of my novel in progress that I was happy with at the end of last year. Spurred on by positive feedback throughout the Curtis Brown Creative course I’d taken, at the start of 2021 I decided to enter Dusk in the Bones into the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize on a bit of a whim, thinking it would be a good to just dive in and stop hiding the manuscript away. Time to start pushing it out into the real world to see what might happen, I told myself.

Last week, I was shocked and thrilled to hear that Dusk… had made it to the longlist for this year’s prize, along with 16 other authors, from over 750 entries (the most the Prize has ever had). Such encouraging news that has given me a renewed sense of purpose in getting the novel in front of readers.

The shortlist will be announced later this year, and of course I have all my fingers crossed, but with this longlisting recognition I already feel like I’ve won.