Hannah Stapleton wins the 2022 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize with 'Blue Tears'
The College announced the 2022 winner of its prestigious Fiction Prize at tonight’s award ceremony.
The 2022 Fiction Prize longlist reflects once again a wealth of literary talent and showcases a diverse range of styles and voices.
The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize is now celebrating its 12th year. The Prize provides a unique opportunity for unpublished women writers to launch their literary careers, and it has gained an unrivalled reputation in the publishing industry. This year’s prize received once again a high number of entries, totalling 572. Thanks to the generosity of Fellow Emerita and judge, Dr Isobel Maddison, and editor and ghost-writer, Gillian Stern, we were able to offer sixteen sponsored entries for low-income writers.
2022 longlist:
- L M Rees - A Script for Buried Voices
- Elisabeth Ingram Wallace - Alumnae
- Hannah Stapleton - Blue Tears
- Julie Holden - Down Came a Blackbird
- Rose Chen - Jimmy the Food Thief
- Margaret Sessa-Hawkins - Migratory Patterns
- Claire Ackroyd - My Family, Decomposed
- Mary Boland - Bridget
- Natalie Baker - Silent as a Shade
- Sarah Frances Armstrong - The Final Festival of Flowers
- Anne Hamilton - The Island in April
- Anna Latimer - The Language of Birds
- Nancy Crane - The Most Beautiful Woman in the World
- Amy E. Archer - Those Who Came Before
- Chrissy Sturt - Underdog
The fifteen talented authors will now await the Prize shortlist, which will be announced in early May.
The judging panel for 2022 includes Tim Bates (Head of the Books Department and literary agent at Peters Fraser + Dunlop), Jackie Ashley and Sophie Hannah (Honorary Fellows of Lucy Cavendish College), Gillian Stern (editor and ghost-writer), Sara Collins (author), Phoebe Morgan (Harper Collins Editorial Director and author), Dr Isobel Maddison and Lindsey Traub (Fellows Emeritae of Lucy Cavendish College).
Tim Bates commented, “It has been another bumper year for the Prize, with a huge volume of entries. It’s been an incredibly difficult process, but we’re now thrilled to be able to announce our longlist for 2022, which includes a pleasingly eclectic range of different voices, styles and approaches.”
Chair of the judging panel, Jackie Ashley added, "This is a cracking longlist - the standard of entries is higher than ever. The judges are enjoying a wonderful variety of genres and themes as we try to whittle 15 brilliant submissions down to a shortlist of six."
Read more about the judges here.
The Fiction Prize and its authors
Since its foundation in 2010, the Prize has been a starting point in numerous entrants’ success stories giving them the platform to launch successful and ongoing careers as novelists.
Read more about the successful authors here.
About Lucy Cavendish College
Lucy Cavendish College’s mission is to attract, support and unlock the potential of students from non-traditional and underrepresented backgrounds who are driven by a desire to make a difference and committed to having a positive and lasting impact on society.
Our undergraduate and postgraduate students come from over sixty countries and a wide variety of educational and professional backgrounds. Many have changed careers or overcome significant challenges in order to reach University.
Contact information
www.fictionprize.co.uk Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, T: 01223 768426, E: comms@lucy.cam.ac.uk
To find out more about the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize click here.
