Happy New Year! A 2021 Roundup + Chesire Novel Prize info

2021 was an amazing year for BGW.

We hosted our first collab event with United Agents, asking those ever-important questions that writers are often too scared to ask. Due to the success of the event, we will be hosting more in the future.

We did two manuscript surgeries with Simon & Schuster, which led to our BGW-exclusive Open Submissions Day with the S&S editorial team. 12 mentees submitted their manuscripts, and one of our mentees has been working with Simon & Schuster to receive personalised editorial help on her novel.

In February, Chantelle Adana held a self-publishing workshop to provide advice to writers who want to forego the traditional publishing route.

We welcomed a whopping 17 mentors to BGW from a range of specialisms, so please be sure to check our mentor page if you would like to be matched with someone!

Thanks to the help of our mentors, mentee Sharma Taylor signed a 2-book deal with Virago, mentee Stacey Thomas was offered representation from Liza DeBlock at Mushens-Entertainment (one of our first supporters!), and mentee Evie Muir signed with The Good Literary Agency.

This year has kicked off with a bang as our Communications Lead, Moyette Gibbons, is on the judging panel for the Cheshire Novel Prize, founded by editorial consultant Sara Cox, alongside a star-studded list of agents, editors, and authors. With a prize of £1500, and a £500 runner up prize, this is not to be missed.

Black Girl Writers is sponsoring five Black writers to enter the prize, so please get in touch if you want to enter! For more details, check out the Cheshire Novel Prize website.

Thank you for your continued support (and patience).

We have so many plans for 2022! Dust off those manuscripts—let’s get published!