2022 Fiction Prize shortlist
Hannah Stapleton (2022 winner)
Hannah is a visual artist, and has worked with young refugees and asylum seekers in therapeutic contexts. Hannah grew up between Australia, South America and South-East Asia before coming to live in England. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, and a BA in Religions and South Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London. Her novel, Blue Tears, was longlisted for the 2021 Mslexia Novel Competition and shortlisted for the 2021 Janklow & Nesbit Prize. As well as writing, she has been developing a practice in land care and growing food through regenerative practices.
Hannah Stapleton: Blue Tears
Natalie Baker
Natalie is a freelance copywriter and journalist who lives in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, with her partner Greg and miniature labradoodle, Pippins. She studied Creative Writing with Drama at Kingston University with a year abroad at SUNY New Paltz in Upstate New York. Natalie worked as an editor in book publishing for Bonnier Books UK and Dorling Kindersley before going freelance in 2017. Her writing has been featured in The Sunday Times Magazine, Time Out London, ELLE UK, Courier, Rakesprogress and SUITCASE magazine. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Emerging Writer Award (the Bridge Awards) and received a place on the Moniack Mhor Residency Programme. Natalie is endlessly inspired by the natural world. When she's not writing, you'll find her in her garden watching things unfurl, or excavating earth from under her nails.
Natalie is on Twitter @NatabakeWriter
Natalie Baker: Silent as a Shade
Sarah Frances Armstrong
Sarah started writing about fifteen years ago, after a weekend writing course had her hooked. She has previously written short stories. Her story ‘Love thy Neighbour’ was featured in INK anthology. She was short-listed for Wasafiri’s New Writing Prize in 2017, and long-listed for the Bristol short-story prize in 2019. She proudly participated in ‘100voicesfor100years’- a writing project to celebrate 100 years of women’s votes. She is a Birkbeck Creative Writing graduate and a lover of literature, especially contemporary and historical fiction.
When she isn’t writing, or foraging in bookshops, she works for the NHS. She is also, in no particular order, a: mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and feminist.
Her writing draws on her fascination with people, and her experience of working in the NHS. She has a passion for giving a voice to those who haven’t had one, and for telling women’s stories.
Sarah Frances Armstrong: The Final Festival of Flowers
Mary Boland
Mary is a freelance writer and editor. She worked for newspapers, magazines and broadcast media in France, the US and Singapore before settling back in her native Dublin, where she returned to university, got a doctorate in Beckettian drama, and spent more than a decade as a subeditor with The Irish Times. She lives with her partner on the northside of Dublin. When not writing she runs in the Phoenix Park, walks in the Wicklow Mountains and swims in Dublin Bay
Mary Boland: Bridget
Claire Ackroyd
Claire grew up in the Peak District and Oxford, and spent much of her childhood writing stories and looking for the Magic Faraway Tree. After studying economics at Cambridge and the LSE, she worked in economic journalism, international development and the UK civil service, but never stopped writing in some form. During lockdown she took part in Curtis Brown Creative’s six-month online novel writing course with a group of fabulous fellow writers (no clandestine parties were held). Claire enjoys drinking coffee, planning adventures overseas and solving cryptic crosswords. She currently lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and two children, all of whom are very supportive of her writing (albeit slightly worried by the title of her book).
Claire Ackroyd: My Family, Decomposed
Anna Latimer
is a freelance photographer (Anna Sherwin), fine artist, and writer. She has an MA in photography from the University of the Arts, London. Her fine art photographic and video work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. ‘The Language of Birds,’ evolved from ideas first explored whilst making a short film for the Istanbul Film and Photography Biennale, using sounds and images from the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Whilst bringing up her two children she also worked in arts education, designing and implementing photography courses for ex-prisoners. She came to writing late and feels extremely fortunate to have discovered new creative possibilities through the written word. She is now halfway through a writing second novel. There is nothing that makes her happier than having a new book to read and the time to read it. Anna was mentored by the writer Jane Rogers under the ‘Gold Dust’ scheme. Her novel was shortlisted for the 2020 Mslexia prize.
Anna Latimer: The Language of Birds