It’s so inspiring when authors are successful in several different fictional forms.  In December 2014, we announced that our 2014  second prize winner, Kit de Waal secured a three book deal with Viking beginning with  her novel, ‘My Name is Leon’.

This week, we learned that Anne-Marie Neary, whose short story’ Gon-Do-La’ is also published in our 2014 Bath Short Story Award Anthology, and who read at our 2014 anthology launch at Mr B’s bookshop back in November, has secured a deal with Hutchinson for her novel ‘Siren’, which will be published in spring 2016. Another of her novels will be published in 2017. Senior editor from Hutchinson, Emma Mitchell says of ‘Siren’, ” This brilliant novel grabbed me right from the dramatic opening scene. Anne-Marie is an outstanding story teller and builds the tension, page after page to an an exhilarating denouement. ‘I’m delighted to have her for the Hutchinson list”.

Both Anne-Marie and Kit have  won awards for short and longer fiction and there’s further inspiration  from authors on the Interview page on this site.  We interviewed the wonderful award winning novelist and short story writer Antony Doerr in March 2013. His novel, ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, published in May 2014 in the US,  was an instant New York Times best seller and one of four finalists in the US National Book Awards. It’s one of Jude’s current recommended  novel reads and her interview with Antony Doerr is back at the top of our interview page on this site  There’s some great advice for short story writers in this interview, particularly on final edits.