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The Times/Chicken House long list is here!

Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone who entered the competition – we quite literally couldn’t do this without you. This year, we’d also like to thank you for your patience. We’re running behind schedule due to the availability of our stellar panel of judges – but this long list is worth the wait, we promise!

We’re so proud of the talented and diverse bunch of writers our readers have plucked from the submissions pile this year. The age-groups are split between 11 middle-grade and 7 YA manuscripts, which contain everything from the dark, gruesome and scary to the funny, whimsical and fantastical… and everything in between! So, without further ado, here is the 2022 longlist:

1. A Dose of Murder – Mercedes Moraza
2. All Hell – Jess Popplewell (@Dial_424689)
3. All Things Dead and Dying – Chandra Fisher (@ThatChandraFish)
4. A Tight Situation – Rebecca Anderson (@Rebecca_A_T_A)
5. Children of Bric-a-Brac – Daisy Jervis (@DaisWriter)
6. Eddie’s Demons – Sarah Harrison (@SarahHarrisons)
7. Fight the Stars – Bethany Wheeler and Sophia Alapati (@MagicalHippo) (@wisdomofthesea)
8. Ghostly: Murder at the Haunted Hotel – Antje Frey (@antjefelicity)
9. I Was an Alien Fashion Model – Fatima Mahdi (@Hand_Of_Fatima)
10. Manyworlds – Elizabeth Park (@emparkauthor)
11. The Apprentice Guide to Fairyside – Marianna Shek (@mariannashek)
12. The Circle of Four – Ashia Mirza (@AshPrinceWriter)
13. The Drowning Town – Hazel Compton (@HJCompton)
14. The Girl From the Sea – Genevieve Carver (@Gevicarver)
15. The Library of Forgotten Dreams – Nazima Pathan (@NP_writing)
16. The Musings of a Muse – Neesha Ofori-Atta (@NeeshaOA)
17. The Sea Lord’s Curse – Angela Murray (@frau_murray)
18. Underlings: The Spark Engines – Murray Fisher (@murray_fisher)

Huge congratulations to our talented longlisted authors. We can’t wait to find out which five of these stories will reach our shortlist – and which will win our two prizes of publication! We hope to announce the shortlist here on our website and across our social media channels by the beginning of October, so watch this space for more news…