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Overview

Discoveries

Discoveries is the Women’s Prize’s writer development programme designed to address the specific challenges that women face as writers.

Set up in 2020 in partnership with Audible, Curtis Brown Literary Agency and Curtis Brown Creative writing school, Discoveries aims to seek out, inspire and support unagented and unpublished women in the UK and Ireland to write their first novels, supporting them from those early pages to long-term careers.

Unlike most initiatives of this kind, Discoveries is completely free, and writers in the UK and Ireland are not required to have finished their novel to enter, but are instead invited to submit the opening of their novel in English (up to 10,000 words) along with a synopsis and a bit about them.

Discoveries 2026 is now open for entries, until 12 January 2026! Learn more below and enter your submission here.

Terms and conditions for Discoveries 2026 can be found here. If you have any questions regarding your entry, please see the FAQ page here.

 

 

Are you an unpublished writer with a brilliant idea?

Discoveries invites unpublished and unagented women writers in the UK or Ireland to submit the opening of a novel in English – up to 10,000 words – for the chance to take part in a bespoke creative writing course, secure personalised mentorship packages, an offer of literary agent representation and a prize of £5000.

Each submission is read by a brilliant reading team made up of industry experts, before an approved selection is shared with our panel of judges to decide who will progress to longlist, shortlist and ultimately announced as the ‘scholar’ or the winner. Our readers and judges are looking for original new voices with exciting new ideas – their priority is promise, not polish! Learn about our 2026 judging panel, below.

Terms and conditions for Discoveries 2026 can be found here. If you have any questions regarding your entry, please see the FAQ page here.

 

 

The 2026 judging panel will be chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. This year, Kate is joined by award-winning and global bestselling author Dorothy Koomson (My Best Friend’s Girl, The Ice Cream Girls and most recently, Give Him To Me); peacebuilding practitioner and 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted author Dr Nussaibah Younis (Fundamentally); Curtis Brown literary agent Ciara Finan; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative, Anna Davis.

Learn more about Discoveries 2026

Books by our Discoveries alumni

Red on the Inside
Ordinary Saints
Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame
This Immaculate Body
  • Meet the 2025 Discoveries winner and scholar
    Read
  • Announcing the 2025 Discoveries longlist
    Read
  • Announcing the 2025 Discoveries shortlist
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WRITER'S TOOLKIT

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Writing Through Change: How Sweden's Wild Landscape Helped Me Find Peace with Publishing

Writer's Toolkit

Where I Write: Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin

To celebrate the publication day of her debut novel, Ordinary Saints, we caught up with 2022 Discoveries shortlisted Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin to learn more about her writing process and workspace.

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