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It was INCREDIBLY difficult to choose only five top manuscripts from this year’s excellent longlist. Huge congratulations to our longlisted authors on proving such a tough playing field! But, after much deliberation, Barry has decided on our final five and we’re so proud to be presenting this amazing list to our panel of judges:

Jelly by Clare Rees

Morgana Mage in the Robotic Age by Amy Bond

The Firestone of Avisriel by Alison Padley-Woods

The Lion and the Unicorn by Trudi Tweedie

The Secret of the Scarlet Ribbon by Justin Strain

The shortlist includes everything from a witchy robotic adventure to a quest in far-flung lands in the footsteps of Darwin, from an atmospheric gothic mystery set in the far north of Scotland to dark post-apocalyptic humour on the back of a jellyfish – and even classic-feeling historical murder mystery set during the last years of the slave trade. Many congratulations to the five shortlisted authors, we think this might be our most spectacular shortlist yet!

Our judges are set to deliberate and announce the winner of a publishing contract (eek!) at the end of June. In the meantime, we’ll be posting a short profile of each author in the lead-up to judging day – as well as information on our very exciting judging panel. Stay tuned …