We are delighted to announce the 19 writers who have made the longlist of the 2016 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.

In its second year, the award attracted 430 entries.

Hachette Australia, along with the Richell family, established The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers in partnership with The Guardian Australia and The Emerging Writers’ Festival. Now in its second year, the Prize was launched in 2015 in memory of Hachette Australia’s former CEO, Matt Richell, who died suddenly in July 2014.

Throughout his publishing career, Matt Richell was a passionate advocate for writers and believed investment and support of new voices to be vital for the future of great literature. The Richell Prize has been established to continue Matt’s work in encouraging emerging writers in Australia. It is a prize for unpublished writers who are serious about their craft and aspire to commence a professional writing career.

The Prize is open to unpublished authors of adult fiction and adult narrative non-fiction. Writers do not need to have a full manuscript at the time of submission, though they must intend to complete one. The Prize will be judged on the first three chapters of the submitted work, along with a 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 on its website.

The judging panel includes author Hannah Richell; Michaela McGuire, Emerging Writers’ Festival Director; Lucy Clark, Senior Editor, The Guardian Australia; Karen Ferris, bookseller; Vanessa Radnidge, Publisher, Hachette Australia.

The 2016 longlist:

Andrea Baldwin, The Illusion of Islands
Daniel Lynch, Melodica Shuffle
Edita Mujkic, From There to Here
Ellena Savage, Blueberries
Emma Doolan, Dark Tides
Gabrielle Bates, Mouth of Flowers
Janelle Nucifora, The Beach House
Jordan Irving, Blue Notes
Kay Harrison, Half-mongrel
Krystina Pecorari-McBride, Where the Violets Grow
Laura McCluskey, This is Real Life
Lyn Dickens, Birdwatching the Erinyes
Marija Pericic, The Kafka Papers
Michael Cormack, The Little Green Chair
Ronnie Scott, The Adversary
Sophie Overett, The Rabbits
Susie Greenhill, The Clinking
Susie Thatcher, Gardens of Stone
Yvette Radas, The Fairies

The shortlist will be announced on 1 September, and the winner will be announced in Sydney on the 28th of September.

The Prize has also been made possible through the support of Simpsons Solicitors and Joy.

The Emerging Writers’ Festival involvement in this Prize has been sponsored by Simpsons Solicitors.