For the second year running, Guppy Books opened its portholes for unpublished and unagented writers – and wow, what a response we had! With over 300 entries, it was exhilarating to see the talent and creativity in these entries. We have managed, with difficulty, to whittle down the entries to a longlist of 36, as listed below.
Hello everyone,
Thank you so much for sending in your entry for Guppy’s open submission window. I was so impressed with the standard of writing, the original ideas and the incredible energy that went into all the submissions. It was a hard task to whittle 300 down to 36 and it’ll be harder still to choose the shortlist. I had the help of some brilliant students from the publishing course at Oxford Brookes – and it was a tough job!
Huge congratulations to those who made the longlist! You will hear more about the next stages individually by email.
Acquiring books is such a subjective thing, and as true of most editors I have said no to many books that go on to do great things; so if you don’t make it onto this list I hope you don’t feel too disappointed. It has been a pleasure to read all the submissions and thank you again for your participation.
With best wishes
Bella Pearson
Publisher
Guppy Books
LONGLISTED ENTRIES
Karen Naylor
Olu Oke
Debbie Longstaff
Emma Norris
Essie Brammer
Lucy Mesanges
Alex Webber Smith
Laurie Lascos
Emily Randall
Christopher Galvin
Sam Oaten
Katja Kaine
Caroline Sellon
Tracy Curran
Ashia Mirza
Maureen Tai
Natalia Godsmark
Naomi Conran
Zoe Rogers
Amy Feest
Kate Walker
Georgina Frame
Matt Cowan
Susan Bain
E Floyd Hall
Fiona Spence-Arnold
Damara Allen
LJ Moss
Jessica Nelson
Emma Bradley
Sarah House
James Dixon
Zareena Subhani
Cathryn Norris
Kate Poels
Mel Stephenson