The market can be tough for debut authors. Readers love their old favourites and the publishing market has never been so buoyant and overwhelmed with talent. Thankfully each year the Impress Prize brings recognition to new writers, and the 2016 winner has now been announced.
Impress Books has awarded the Impress Prize for new Writers 2016 to Magdalena McGuire for her novel The Shape of Your Song. The novel is a work of historical fiction and is set in communist Poland in the 1980s.
A panel of judges who said this year’s shortlist had been one of the strongest ever made the decision earlier this week, and with this fantastic award The Shape of Your Song is almost certainly a designated bestseller. Although as yet no publishing date for the novel has been released.
The prize was created to discover and publish brand new writing talent. Authors can enter online via a simple form by sending in a sample chapter. The authors are then reduced to a shortlist by a panel of industry judges, and from them a final winner is found.
The prize has been given since 2007 and previous winners include Annabel Abbs, James Calum Campbell, and Susan Luddem.
The 2016 panel also awarded David Norman an Impress Prize Commendation for his novel, South of Hannah, which is to be crowdfunded in conjunction with Unbound.
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