“Winning the prize really made a difference in getting people interested”

How and when did you get into writing? 

I started ignoring the real world in favour of losing myself in a book very early on, and was particularly obsessed with fantasy. It was the stories of brave animals defending woodland abbeys, or orphans discovering magical powers, that made me firmly decide as a young teenager that I wanted to do this too (the writing bit, not bravely defending abbeys, though all the stories of adventure definitely gave me the urge to travel). After studying languages at university I spent much of my twenties teaching English as a foreign language in China, Japan and Italy, and writing was another way of exploring and making sense of the different places and experiences. Then when I came back to the UK to do a PhD, I joined a creative writing group at a local cafe, partly just as a way to meet more people. This was the first time I'd ever done writing exercises, or really discussed stories as a way of improving my own work, and it was a revelation. The tutor introduced me to the Leeds Writers' Circle, and I started to take the writing more seriously.

In 2012 I was lucky enough to go to the Clarion West Writers' Workshop, in Seattle. This is a six-week workshop aimed at writers of speculative fiction, and has incredible tutors every year — including, in our year, Connie Willis, George R.R. Martin, and Kelly Link. The novel that I entered into the Lucy Cavendish Prize started life as a short story at this workshop, critiqued in detail by my seventeen amazing classmates, though it was only later that it began to turn into something longer.

How did you hear about the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and what made you enter?

I'd heard about it from a writer friend the previous year, though at that point I wasn't really thinking of the novel as something that was going to be actually finished or ever shown to anyone! I'd been happily and randomly filling notebooks up with scenes and ideas for the last couple of years, but by 2019 I'd decided that I needed a deadline, so I tried to kick the first few chapters into shape in order to enter the competition. Of course, a combination of being incurably last minute about everything, and having a crisis of confidence on the morning of the deadline ('This is a ridiculous idea, there's no point even entering, what do these words even mean?' etc etc…) almost scuppered the whole thing, but I did finally get it in, with minutes to spare!

 How did you feel when you were selected for the shortlist?

It was an amazing feeling! From getting the first email about the longlist, there'd been a real sense of encouragement and community from everyone involved with the prize, and it was a real confidence boost. When I got the shortlisting email I was at work, so had to escape to the washrooms to do a ridiculous little celebratory dance, then go back and try (unsuccessfully) to concentrate for the rest of the day.                                                                                             

How did it feel to win?

The prize event was fantastic — it was so nice to see the college, and to meet some of the judges and everyone else on the shortlist. We all hit it off right away, and set up a WhatsApp group that is still used to share our writing news. As for the announcement itself, I sort of wish I could go back and properly experience it, as I felt so overwhelmed that I'm pretty sure I completely forgot how to act like a proper human. I just remember someone asking if I wanted to say a few words, and replying, in panic, 'Do I have to??' which is a terrible way to show gratitude for something so lovely! Anyway, I think I managed to mumble something vaguely coherent, and then spent the rest of the evening in a happy daze. The only problem was that none of us shortlisted writers had managed to eat very much of the delicious-looking food that had been going around, as we were too busy talking and feeling nervous, so by the end of the night we were starving!

Has being involved with the Fiction Prize helped your writing career?              

It's no exaggeration to say that the Prize has been life-changing. Nelle Andrew was on the judging panel, and she offered me representation based on the chapters I'd entered for the prize, and what was at that point a VERY rough draft of the rest of the novel. I worked with her on the novel for another couple of years (nothing about this book has been fast!), then had the amazing experience of going to auction and finding wonderful editors at W&N and Flatiron. I think winning the prize really made a difference in getting people interested, and I also feel hugely grateful for how supportive the community around the prize has been — from everyone at the college, to the judges and other writers — and it feels great to be part of it.                                                              

What advice would you give other aspiring writers about their writing careers and then more specifically about entering the Fiction Prize?

I'm really grateful for all the time I spent slowly writing and thinking about the novel, without any pressure or expectations, so I think it can be helpful to try to block out the noise about publishing and enjoy the writing itself. But when you're ready to take it further, competitions can be so useful, and here my biggest piece of advice would be to ignore that horrible little voice questioning whether your work is any good, and asking why you're even bothering thinking about entering. This voice is up to no good! But it's easier said than done to stamp it out, so if you can join a writing group or find writing friends who are going through the same thing, that can be vital. Competitions can provide something to aim for, and whatever happens, you'll have polished your first chapters, and made use of that deadline. (Though I'd also recommend not leaving it quite so much to the last minute as I did… I always feel incredibly hypocritical when nagging my students to submit work in plenty of time, as I've clearly been incapable of taking my own advice!).

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands will be published in summer 2024 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, who has triumphed in an 11-way auction for this “genre-bending” literary novel, signing a “major” six-figure deal for two books.

Enter the 2024 Fiction Prize

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