By Julia Fitzpatrick
Felicity Bryan Associates (FBA), an independent literary agency based in Oxford, has announced the launch of FBA New Voices, a “writer development programme looking for the best emerging underrepresented voices in fiction.” With three spaces available on the programme, the successful applicants will be mentored over nine months by a published author and an FBA literary agent. The mentors will provide tailored editorial feedback as well as offering advice about succeeding in the publishing industry. The selected candidates will also be given the opportunity to share their work at a public showcase event in Oxford in early 2024.
Three authors have signed up as mentors. K Patrick is a writer based in Scotland and has had their poetry appear in publications including Poetry Review, Five Dials and Granta. K was shortlisted for the White Review Poet’s Prize in 2021. They were named one of The Observer’s top ten debut novelists of 2023 for their debut novel Mrs S (4th Estate, 2023). Melody Razak is a British-Iranian novelist from London. Her debut novel Moth (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2021), set in partition-era Delhi, was longlisted for the 2022 Desmond Elliot Prize and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Melody was also selected as one of The Observer’s top ten debut novelists of 2021, and as one of Harper’s Bazaar’s “Five Debut Female Authors to Read This Summer.” Cathy Thomas is an author whose short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The London Magazine, BANSHEE and Litro. She has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Royal Academy and Pin Drop Award. Cathy’s debut short story collection Islanders (Virago, 2022) spans two decades of life in Guernsey.
Applicants must be unpublished writers currently working on their first novel, novella or short story collection, in the genre of adult fiction. Writers who already have an agent are not eligible. Candidates must be over eighteen and based in the UK or Ireland. They will also “consider themselves underrepresented on the UK’s bookshelves, be that through ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender, class or any other circumstances.”
Candidates must submit between 8,000 to 10,000 words of their work-in-progress. They must also submit a 500-word synopsis and a short bio about themselves. Applications should be sent to newvoices@felicitybryan.com. Submissions will close at midnight on 26 March, and applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application by June.
For more information, visit https://felicitybryan.com/contact-us/new-voices-writing-programme/.