We are delighted to announce that critically acclaimed novelist Dame Rose Tremain will Chair the 2023 judging panel.
Dame Rose Tremain will be chairing the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize judging panel. The Prize, now in its thirteenth year, has been a launch pad for novelists, and in the last two years, has received a record number of entries.
Rose Tremain was educated at the Sorbonne and the University of East Anglia, where she taught creative writing from 1988-95 and was Chancellor of from 2013 to 2016.
Her novels and short stories have been published worldwide in 27 countries and have won many prizes, including the Sunday Express book of the Year Award (for Restoration, also shortlisted for the Booker Prize); the Prix Femina Etranger, France (for Sacred Country); the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award (for Music & Silence) and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2008 (for The Road Home). Restoration was filmed in 1995 and a stage version was produced in 2009. Her latest novel is the acclaimed Lily (2021) which was a Richard and Judy bookclub pick.
She was chosen as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' by the literary magazine Granta in 1983, and was a judge for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1988 and in 2000. She was made a CBE in 2007.
Rose takes over as Prize Chair from Jackie Ashley, political journalist, broadcaster and Honorary Fellow of the College (after leaving the College as its eighth President).
The 2023 judging panel welcomes back Tim Bates, Head of the Books Department and literary agent; Dr Isobel Maddison, Fellow Emerita of Lucy Cavendish College where she was Lecturer and Director of Studies in English; Gillian Stern, editor and ghost-writer; Lindsey Traub, Fellow Emerita, and Phoebe Morgan, Harper Collins Editorial Director and author of four novels published by HQ. Joining the panel this year, we also have Reeta Chakrabarti, BBC News presenter and correspondent, and Sheena Patel, writer and assistant director for the film and TV industry.
Rose Tremain says: “I’m delighted to be chairing the judges of the excellent Lucy Cavendish Prize, 2023. Discovering new voices in fiction is always really exciting and I’m hoping to see a wonderful, diverse and seductive gathering of talent come my way this year.”
Read more about the judging panel.
Since the Prize’s foundation in 2010, many shortlisted authors have been offered agency representation and have gone on to be published, becoming bestsellers. We are extremely proud to be the starting point in numerous entrants’ success stories, giving them the platform to launch successful careers as novelists.
Read more about the successful authors here.
Submissions for the 2023 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize are open.
Visit our website to find out more and enter.
About Lucy Cavendish College
Lucy Cavendish College’s mission is to unlock the potential of students from non-traditional and underrepresented backgrounds who are driven by a desire to make a difference and are committed to having a positive and lasting impact on society.
Contact information
https://www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/fictionprize Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, T: 01223 768426, E: comms@lucy.cam.ac.uk