Welcome to New Voices 2024. This year we are looking for the best, new love stories from emerging underrepresented voices in fiction. From epic romantasies to literary slow burns, romantic comedies and historical tales of lost soulmates, we want to read love stories in all their forms.

Founded in 2023, FBA NEW VOICES is a writer development programme that aims to help discover exciting new literary talent, demystify the process of finding an agent for writers who may find this daunting, and to offer editorial support during the early development of their first novel.

Three selected writers will be mentored over nine months by an FBA author and literary agent, who will draw on their experience and expertise to give valuable, personalised feedback on the writer’s work-in-progress.

 

What does the New Voices programme offer?

  • Two virtual mentoring sessions from a published author, providing one-to-one feedback on your work-in-progress.
  • A meeting with an FBA agent, offering advice and insight into the publishing industry and the role of literary agents.

 

The Author Mentors

ALAN MURRIN

Alan Murrin is an Irish fiction writer. His debut novel, The Coast Road, tells the story of two women – housewife Izzy and writer Colette – in County Donegal in 1994, the year before divorce became legal in Ireland. The Coast Road was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction Prize and sold to Bloomsbury at auction. It will be published in May 2024.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: White Houses (Amy Bloom); The Narrow Land (Christine Dwyer-Hickey); Gilead (Marilynne Robinson); The Story of the Night (Colm Tóibín).

 

CLARA KUMAGAI

Clara Kumagai is from Canada, Japan and Ireland. Her fiction and non-fiction for children and adults has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Banshee and The Kyoto Journal. Her debut YA novel, Catfish Rolling (Zephyr, 2023), blends magical realism with Japanese myth in an original story about grief and memory. Catfish Rolling was a finalist for the 2023 Great Reads Award and is shortlisted for the 2023 KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier); Possession (A.S. Byatt); The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro).

 

KALIE REID

Kalie Reid is a writer and photographer from Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, a place best known for the rain and incredible coffee. Her debut romantic fantasy novel, about an exiled saint and the devout iconographer sent to paint him, sold at auction.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: Divine Rivals (Rebecca Ross); A Taste of Gold and Iron (Alexandra Rowland).

 

 

The Agents

ALICE CAPRIO

Alice joined FBA in 2023 from London Literary Scouting. At FBA she is building a list that spans YA and commercial adult fiction, as well as romance and fantasy for all ages. She is on the hunt for stories that are smart, engaging and bold, with a clear international appeal. When reading romance, she is drawn to unusual set-ups, engaging dialogue and irresistible chemistry between the leads.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: The Passion (Jeanette Winterson); Caraval (Stephanie Garber); Persuasion (Jane Austen); A Court of Mist and Fury (Sarah J Maas).

 

ANGELIQUE TRAN VAN SANG

Angelique joined FBA after seven years as an editor at Bloomsbury, where she published Jenny Zhang, Olivia Sudjic and Saba Sams. In fiction, she looks for works that strike the heart and intellect in equal measure, that feature protagonists on the margins, and explore the full and complex lives of those not often represented in literature. Authors she represents include, Mona Arshi, Rebecca Ivory and K Patrick.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: Trespasses (Louise Kennedy); Giovanni’s Room (James Baldwin); Important Artifacts (Leanne Shapton); Middlemarch (George Eliot).

 

CAROLINE WOOD

Caroline is a Director at FBA and has worked as a literary agent for over fifteen years. She represents writers of literary book-club fiction and crime fiction, including a number of top-ten best-selling authors. She looks for writing that is atmospheric, character-driven, cinematic and gripping. Her varied client list features the likes of Booker-prize winner Damon Galgut, Anna Hope, Jonathan Coe, Gill Hornby, and Martin Walker. In 2022 Caroline was shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Favourite Love Stories in Fiction: The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje); The Go-Between (L.P. Hartley); Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie); In Memoriam (Alice Winn).

 

Eligibility

Applications for New Voices are open to unpublished fiction writers who consider themselves underrepresented on the UK’s bookshelves, be that through ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender, class or any other circumstances. Applicants must be over the age of 18 and based in the UK or Ireland. Writers should be working towards a full-length fiction novel or novella (adult fiction and YA only, not middle grade).

 

How to apply?

To apply, you need to submit between 8,000 and 10,000 words of your work-in-progress along with a 500 word synopsis and a short bio about yourself and your writing. We are only able to accept one entry per applicant.

Please send your submissions to: newvoices@felicitybryan.com

Submissions are open from Wednesday 14th February and will close at midnight on Sunday 24th March.

 

FAQs

I’m a poet with a published collection. Am I eligible?

Poets who have published a collection are eligible.

 

I’ve had a short story or poem published in an anthology or literary magazine. Am I eligible?

Writers who have had a short story published in an anthology, magazine or journal are eligible.

 

Can I submit a short story collection?

No, I’m afraid this year New Voices submissions are only open to novels/novellas in progress.

 

I have self-published a novel. Am I eligible?

Self-published authors (who have self-published a work of fiction) are not eligible.

 

I have a literary agent but haven’t published my first novel yet. Am I eligible?

Writers who already have a literary representative/agent are not eligible.

 

Does my novel need to be finished in order to submit?

No, your work-in-progress doesn’t need to be finished. We just need to read an 8,000 – 10,000 word extract.

 

What should the synopsis that I submit look like?

Your synopsis should be no more than 500 words, outlining the key plot details that give our readers and judges a sense of how the story will pan out.

 

When can I expect to hear back about my submission?

We aim to get back to all writers to let them know the outcome of their submission by the end of June.