Impress Award for New Writers Announces Winner!
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A former psychiatric nurse has won this year’s Impress Prize for New Writers. The prize, run in conjunction with the University of Exeter’s Centre for Creative Writing was awarded to Carol Fenlon for “Consider the Lilies” a fictional tale of a feral child’s life told through diary excerpts.
The competition was open to students in the UK who are registered on a university creative writing course. They had to supply a six thousand word chapter of fiction that resulted in a short list of ten. Andy Brown, Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and the Arts said, “Exeter is now recognised as a national centre for creative writing, providing opportunities for writers to make that first all-important step into print. This competition showcases talent and enables publishers to cherry pick the best new writers UK universities have to offer.Success in the competition gives the writers a great calling card for talks with national agents and editors.”
Impress Books director Dr Richard Willis described the winning entry as “haunting and beautifully crafted. Ms Fenlon has a unique voice and her writing deserves national attention.”
Ms Fenlon is currently studying for a Phd in Creative Writing at Edge Hill University, focusing her research on images of feral children in fiction. She began writing in earnest in 1993 after a motorbike accident ended her nursing career. Since then her writing has been published in mainstream magazines and received critical acclaim in national writing competitions including the Exeter Poetry prize and the Asham Award. The prize of a £500 advance on a publishing contract with Impress Books was awarded at a lavish ceremony on the 3rd December.
Ms Fenlon said: “I never dreamed that I might win. I’m still pinching myself. It’s a tremendous justification of all the work I put into the novel and so exciting to think I will soon see it in print.” The winning entry was chosen by a panel from a shortlist of ten, a sample chapter of which appears in a specially produced publication. The panel included Professor of French and author Martin Sorrell (lecturer to JK Rowling), literary agent Jane Smith, author James Long, Waterstone’s fiction buyer Janine Cook and former Whitbread judge Colin Morgan.
Chairperson Professor Sorrell said: “The judges were most impressed by the sustained high quality of what they read. It was no easy matter to decide on a winner, but the judges agreed on Carol Fenlon, happy in the knowledge that other entrants will have the opportunity to discuss their work with Impress and with representatives of the book trade.”
Next year’s award will be given for a work of non-fiction. Consider the Lilies (ISBN: 9780955623912 £7.99) is scheduled for publication in June 2008 and will be available in all good bookshops.
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