First Chapter Comp Longlist

Photo by Brian Suh on Unsplash

Hi!

Now that Retreat West has closed down and I’ve merged some of what used to happen there into WestWord, the First Chapter competition, which has been running since 2015, is now here at WestWord.

The last one at Retreat West closed in July and we are delighted to announce the longlist for this competition. Many thanks to everyone who entered and well done to the writers of the following novels!

Longlist

• A Girl Named Thursday

• A Long, Long Way to Run

• An Uncompleted Woman

• Bear Lake

• Dig Two Graves

• French Connections

• Infinity Land

• Kambylos

• La Dea

• Newman’s Choice

• On Folly Bridge

• One of the Greats

• Only Darker

• Our End is Where We Start

• Plastic People

• Reservations

• Shag/Marry/Ghost

• Summer Rain

• The Drowning Game

• The Escape Artist

• The Influencer

• The Fortress of Secrets

• The Friendliest Village in England

• The Lady in Red

• The Stench

• The Strange Talent of Madeleine Mallarkey

• The Summer of Lottie

• The Theory of Love and Loss

• The Zoo of Exotic Horrors

• Truth Spinner

• When We Fall

We’ll be back with the shortlist as soon as we can and then the judge, literary agent Imogen Pelham at Marjacq, will choose the three winners. The writer in first place wins feedback on their first three chapters and synopsis in a Zoom meeting with Imogen. Second place will receive written feedback on their first three chapters from me, and third place will receive feedback on their opening chapter from one of the WestWord editors.

Now that this competition is going to run here, it will be once a year with a February deadline. To help us bring you the prizes you want, please complete this short poll to let us know which you’d prefer. Only the first prize would be changed and the second and third prizes remain the same.

• Option A: the first prize remains as feedback on 3 chapters and a Zoom meeting with a literary agent

• Option B: the first prize is full manuscript review (up to 85K words) from me.

And don’t forget the Past Times Prize closes this month and we want your flash stories up to 500 words set in the 1920s. Info here.

We hope to read your work sometime soon!

With love,

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