We are absolutely thrilled to announce the longlist of the 2026 YA competition!

In no particular order, the longlisted titles and authors are…:

House of Clay by Charlie Baudry

The Lost Selkie Queen by Ruth Stevenson

Escape from Howlington Hall by Sarah Warrilow

Recipe for Yesteryear by Anjna Prasanna

You Look Better in the Sun by Nathanael Wheatcroft-Brown

The Bumpkin Diaries by Rachel Pattinson

Night Bus Riders by Ellie Pulze

Eat My Goal by Alex Money

The Night Whisperer by Amy Thomson

The Click by Florianne Humphrey

A Body in the Hard Drive by Claire Thomas

Things Harry Oliver Knows Now by Jonathan Sellars

Celestial Asassins by Shalini Vohra

Huge congratulations to you all – we’ll be in touch with you on email.

And thank you to everyone who submitted their manuscripts; unfortunately we cannot give feedback on an individual basis but we really enjoyed reading your work – it is always so wonderful to see such creativity and innovation in the YA writing world.

A shortlist will be announced on November 9th 2026.