The Novel Prize is a biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world. It offers $10,000 to the winner and simultaneous publication in North America by New York-based New Directions, in the UK and Ireland by the London-based Fitzcarraldo Editions, and in Australia and New Zealand by the Sydney-based publisher Giramondo. The prize rewards novels which explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and are innovative and imaginative in style.
Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo and New Directions are pleased to announce that Giada Scodellaro has won the 2024 Novel Prize for her novel Ruins, Child. Selected from 1,100 submissions, Giada Scodellaro’s novel will be published simultaneously by all three publishers in early 2026. The other shortlisted entries were Rey Conquer’s How to Live Together, Neal Amandus Gellaco’s Touch Me Now, Nick Holdstock’s Porcupine and Hollen Singleton’s Moss House. Submissions were open from 1 April to 1 June 2024, with New Directions reading submissions from the Americas, Fitzcarraldo Editions from Africa and Europe, Giramondo from Asia and Australasia.
Jessica Au won the inaugural Novel Prize in 2020 for Cold Enough for Snow. The novel, selected from over 1500 entries worldwide, was published in English in February 2022 and was published in 22 territories. The novel went on to win the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the 2023 Victorian Prize for Literature, among other prizes. The other shortlisted entries were Glenn Diaz’s Yñiga, Emily Hall’s The Longcut, Christine Lai’s Landscapes, Nora Lange’s Us Fools, and Lani Yamamoto’s Ours and Others’.
In 2022, the Novel Prize was shared by Jonathan Buckley for Tell and Anne de Marcken for It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, selected from close to 1,000 submissions.The other shortlisted titles for the 2022 Novel Prize are Darcie Dennigan’s Forever Valley, Marie Doezema’s Aurora Australis, Florina Enache’s Palimpsest, Vijay Khurana’s The Passenger Seat, Valer Popa’s Moon Over Bucharest, and Sola Saar’s Anonymity Is Life.
Prior to the launch of the Novel Prize in 2020, Fitzcarraldo Editions ran an annual novel prize for authors resident in the UK and Ireland. Adam Mars-Jones was awarded the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize for Box Hill, a strangely tragic love story between two men set in the gay biker community during the late 1970s. The winning novel was one of 321 submissions. Jeremy Cooper won the inaugural Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize in 2018 for Ash before Oak, a novel in the form of a nature diary, obliquely charting the narrator’s slow return to health. The winning novel was one of 181 submissions.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Please read these eligibility and entry rules carefully before submitting. Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of the entry rules. For any queries not covered below, please [email protected].
1. The competition is open to published and unpublished writers around the world. Writers based in Africa and Europe should submit to Fitzcarraldo Editions. Writers based in the Americas should submit via New Directions; writers based in Asia and Australasia should submit to Giramondo. For more information please visit thenovelprize.com.
2. Entrants residing in Africa and Europe should submit a full manuscript of their novel (minimum 30,000 words) to [email protected]. The manuscript should be double-spaced, 12pt.
3. Each submission should include a cover letter including a biographical note, contact details and brief outline of the novel.
4. The submission must be original.
5. Entries can also be sent by post to Fitzcarraldo Editions, A103, 8-12 Creekside, London SE8 3DX.
6. Only submissions received by email or by post by midnight on 1 June 2024 (GMT) will be considered.
7. Entries that are incomplete, corrupted or submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
8. The entry must be the entrant’s own original creation and must not infringe upon the right or copyright of any person or entity.
9. Co-authored entries will not be accepted.
10. Writers who have existing contracts, or who have previously held contracts, with publishers for books of fiction or non-fiction are eligible to enter.
11. Writers who have published writing (fiction or non-fiction) in magazines and journals are eligible to enter.
12. Writers who have published books of poetry are eligible to enter.
13. Writers may submit only one manuscript per iteration of the prize.
14. The novel must be written in English (no translations).
15. Submissions may be made by the author of the novel or (if they have one) their agent.
16. There are no age restrictions, and we welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds.
17. Submissions from writers residing outside of Africa or Europe will not be considered or passed on to the relevant publishers.
18. All submissions should include page numbers.
19/ The novel must be original and should not have been previously published anywhere in full. Published work is taken to mean published in any printed, publicly accessible form, e.g. anthology, magazine, newspaper. It is also taken to mean published online, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites.
20. A shortlist will be announced in January 2025. The winner will be announced in February 2025, and published in early 2026.
21. Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo and New Directions reserve the right to organise a meeting or phone call with all shortlisted writers to discuss their novel before the award of the prize.
22. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted.
23. No editorial feedback will be provided to unsuccessful entrants.
24. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.
25. Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo and New Directions will have the exclusive world rights to publish the winning novel.
26. Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo and New Directions reserve the right not to award the prize this year, or to make multiple offers of publication.
27. Only submissions which meet all Terms and Conditions will be considered.
28. By entering this competition, each entrant agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.