After receiving over 700 entries to the 2019 Richell Prize, we are delighted to announce the 21 writers on this year’s longlist.

Hachette Australia, along with the Richell family, is honoured to present the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for 2019, in partnership with The Guardian Australia and The Emerging Writers’ Festival.

The 2019 longlisted writers are:

Sarah Fiddelaers, Where the Lost Boys Go
Tee Linden, The Nameless
Sara El Sayed, The Blind Pussy Cat
Sunil Badami, An Allergy
Ruby Todd, The Counterpart
Allee Richards, In Real Life
Delila Bevan Zavadsky, Thawed Waters
Yannick Thoraval, White Foam
January Gilchrist, The Lady Detective
Ayla Black, The Earth Starts Talking
Simon Robertson, The Reset
Else Fitzgerald, Nearly Curtains
Josiah Slough, Capstone
Kylie Orr, The Fundraiser
Justin Hamilton, The Ultimate
Heather James, The Inlet
Christine Kearney, The Book of Eels
Jacqueline Winn, The Glorious Madness
Lauren Draper, We’ll Meet Again
Jennifer Carlisle, The Ultimate’s Sister
Daniel Ryan, The City’s Heart

The writers on the longlist will be judged on both the first three chapters of the submitted work and on the synopsis outlining the direction of the proposed work and details about how the author’s writing career would benefit from winning the prize.

The winner will receive $10,000 in prize money, to be donated by Hachette Australia, along with a 12-month mentorship with one of Hachette Australia’s publishers. Hachette Australia will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript with first option to consider the finished work and shortlisted entries for publication. As well as promoting the prize, The Guardian Australia will publish an extract of the first chapter of the winning work and a profile on the winning writer.

The 2019 judging panel includes Robert Watkins, Head of Literary at Hachette Australia; Hannah Richell, bestselling author; Sarah Schmidt, bestselling author of See What I Have Done; and Steve Sines, a bookseller at Potts Point Bookshop. The shortlist will be announced on October 7, with the winner announced in Sydney on November 8.

Hachette Australia and Hannah Richell would like to thank The Emerging Writers’ Festival and The Guardian Australia for partnering with them to make this prize a reality. The Emerging Writers’ Festival would also like to thank Simpsons Solicitors for assisting them financially with the administration of the prize.

This prize brings together a group of people who know what a huge supporter of emerging writers Matt Richell was. Without the writers there would be no prize – so congratulations to everyone on the longlist.