Welcome…

With a rich and diverse northern soul, the Cheshire Novel Prize is an International prize open to writers worldwide. We are all about giving un-agented writing talent a platform on which to make your voices heard.

The prize is now five years old and over the years, Thirty -five of our shortlisted writers and 50 of our long-listed writers have received offers of representation as a direct result of entering the prize. Many other listed writers have received interest in their work—and representation in some cases— as a direct result of our agent showcase. Other writers have used our feedback to successfully become published with independent presses or smaller publishing houses or agented.

Cheshire Novel Prize (CNP) was created by Sara Cox (@saranaidinecox ), writer and editor in 2021. Sara was awarded an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University (@McrWritingSchl ).

Sara understands that writing can be a long and arduous road, where the slush pile and querying can seem insurmountable for even the most talented of writers.

Passionate about writing and new writers, CNP is Sara’s way of offering new unagented talent and unknown voices the chance to rise up and allow their voices to be heard and their stories told. It shouldn’t matter where you live or whatever your circumstances are, to make your voice count. This is why Sara set up The Cheshire Novel Prize because CNP is a prize run by writers for writers.

The Cheshire Novel Prize accepts all genres including memoir, fictional memoir and YA.

Submission Process

We ask you for the first 5,000 words of your work plus a 500 word synopsis. If you are long-listed, we then ask for an additional 20,000 words and if shortlisted, we ask you to send us the whole manuscript. We believe these timelines give you additional time from the point of entry to the long-list and the shortlist judging.