‘Intimate, sometimes heartbreaking and often funny, this letter of love is essential reading’
Mail on Sunday ‘White’s frank memoir yields a deep understanding of disability, and her voice reverberates with strength and tenderness’ Times Literary Supplement
FINALIST IN OUR PREVIOUS MEMOIR COMPETITION
‘I was at the hospital for hand surgery when I found out I’d been longlisted. I knew I wouldn’t be able to type if they operated, so I rushed home to work on the manuscript. It’s about my son Louis, who suffered brain damage at birth; about loving him and caring for him. The Mslexia competition made all the difference. When I first submitted the book to agents I didn’t even get an acknowledgment. But once I was a finalist, five agents at the networking event offered to represent me.’ ALISON WHITE Letter to Louis was published by Faber & Faber in 2018 and was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’ in April 2020.
TERMS & CONDITIONS PAGE 33
www.mslexia.co.uk/competitions
CASH PRIZES PUBLICATION MENTORING AGENT INTRODUCTIONS PITCH TRAINING WRITING RETREAT
Evans Agency.
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1st prize £500 FLASH FICTION
1st prize £3,000 SHORT STORY 1st prize £5,000 CHILDREN’S & YA NOVEL
1st prize £5,000 MEMOIR & LIFE-WRITING
JUDGE: INGRID JENDRZEJEWSKI (editor of FlashBack Fiction and Flash Flood, Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day) For complete short fiction narratives in any genre for adult and/or young adult readers, by published or unpublished women writers. The winning entry and three finalists will be published in Mslexia magazine. For fiction up to 300 words Entry fee: £5
JUDGE: SARAH HALL (award-winning short story author and novelist) For complete short stories in any genre for adult and/ or young adult readers by published or unpublished women writers. The winner will also receive an optional week at an Arvon writing centre we and mentoring by an editor at Virago Press. The winning entry and three finalists will be published in Mslexia magazine. For fiction up to 3,000 words Entry fee: £10
JUDGES: KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE (children’s and YA novelist) AMANDA CRAIG (novelist, children’s fiction critic) JOANNA MOULT (literary agent) For novels of at least 20,000 words in any genre for children and young people aged 18 and under, by women who are previously unpublished as novelists. Finalists are invited to a pitching and networking event with agents and editors, and will receive manuscript feedback from TLC. Submit first 5,000 words only Entry fee: £25
JUDGES: KATE CLANCHY (award-winning memoirist, novelist, poet) CAROLINE SANDERSON (Associate Editor, The Bookseller) ISOBEL DIXON (literary agent)
For prose of at least 50,000 words that narrate events in the writer’s life and/or a quest or investigation she undertakes, by women who are previously unpublished as novelists, memoirists or biographers. Finalists are invited to a pitching and networking event with agents and editors, and will receive manuscript feedback from TLC. Submit first 5,000 words only Entry fee: £25
4 Jun/Jul/Aug 2020 mslexia
