The London Writers Awards is Spread the Words’ flagship writer development programme. Originally launched in 2018, the London Writers Awards aims to increase the number of writers from under-represented communities being taken up by agents and publishers. It has supported 120 writers and has become the most successful writer development scheme in the UK with 50 writers agented and over 35 book deals.
In a series of blog posts we will list the writers who completed the programme and the first books that they have published. You can find out more about the other cohorts on these links: Cohort 1 – 2018, Cohort 2 – 2019, Cohort 3 – 2021.
Commercial Fiction
Chris Bridges, Sick to Death, 2025
Felicity Yeoh
Ijeoma Okoye
Keah Lily
Hookz the Writer
Sharon Sylvan
Literary Fiction
Alex Blank
Aparna Surendra
Joe Rizzo-Naudi
Lena Mohamed
Lizzie Clark
Mark O’Brien
Monica Kam
Nadège René
Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends, 2024
Rachel Marangozov
Ulka Karadikar
William Andrews
Narrative Non-Fiction
J.C. Newman
Kayleigh Cassidy
Lorraine Lui
Rebecca White
SJ Lyon
Tia Bannon
YA/Children’s Fiction
Alka Handa
Amelia Giudici
Kiana Thorpe
Mayo Agard-Olubo
Mel Pettitt
Tomek Mossakowski
