Entering its fifth year, Discoveries our pioneering writers development programme launches with the search to uncover the writing stars of tomorrow.
Run in partnership with Audible, the Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency, and the Curtis Brown Creative writing school, Discoveries aims to inspire unagented and unpublished women in the UK and Ireland to write their first novels, providing a host of resources designed to support women at all stages of their writing journey, with an ongoing commitment to reach writers currently underrepresented in the UK publishing industry.
The 2025 judging panel will be chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer, playwright, performer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. Kate Mosse is joined this year by author and musician Claire Kohda (Woman, Eating); international bestselling and award-winning author Dreda Say Mitchell MBE (Say Her Name, Trapdoor, Gangland Girls series, DI Rio series, Flesh and Blood series and Spare Room with Ryan Carter); journalist, author and podcaster Chloe Timms (The Seawomen); Curtis Brown literary agent Jess Molloy; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative, Anna Davis.
Submissions are open from 19 September 2024 until 11:59pm on 13 January 2025.
The longlist and shortlist will be announced on 1 May and 15 May 2025, with the winner and scholar announced on 29 May 2025.
In the first four years of Discoveries, we have been delighted with the range of writers submitting their cherished works-in-progress – works of imagination and inspiration, ambition and personal reflection, in every genre and from every part of the country. Each voice matters, and every woman who has a story to share should be able to engage with Discoveries. So, mark the deadline in your diary and get writing; we can’t wait to get reading.
Kate Mosse
Discoveries 2025 is set to launch amid a flurry of successes for its alumni and we couldn’t be more pleased. Almost 40% (24 in total) of its longlisted writers from the first four years of Discoveries have already signed with literary agents, with a growing number securing publishing deals in the UK and internationally.
The winner of Discoveries, announced in May 2025, will receive an offer of representation from Curtis Brown and £5,000; one promising writer, named the ‘Discoveries Scholar’, will win a free scholarship to attend a three-month Writing Your Novel course with Curtis Brown Creative (worth £1,800); a shortlist of six authors (including the winner and scholar) will each be offered a one-to-one mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent plus a free place on a six-week Curtis Brown Creative course of their choice; while sixteen longlisted authors will each receive a place on a bespoke, two-week online Discoveries Writing Development Course taught by Women’s Prize shortlisted author Charlotte Mendelson, plus an Audible subscription.
See the full terms and conditions here.
As Discoveries turns five years old, we are thrilled to see some truly exciting novels emerging from the programme – and with so many writers still at work on their novels, we know there will be lots more to follow. But Discoveries is about much more than prizes and publication: our shared mission is to help more women to find their writing voices, put pen to paper and tell their stories.
Jess Molloy, Agent, Curtis Brown, and Anna Davis, MD Curtis Brown Creative
So what are you waiting for? If you have the gem of an idea for your first novel, head to the Discoveries page to find out more and enter on the Curtis Brown Creative website.
