Before I published my debut novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf, with Penguin Random House in 2018, I knew so little about how publishing worked. The role of literary agents or how submissions to publishers worked was a total mystery to me, so much so that it feels miraculous now that I ever found the courage to send my novel manuscript out into the world at all.
Two novels later, I understand now that there is no reason for aspiring writers to feel intimidated or confused about the world of publishing, and yet I also know that so many brilliant aspiring writers feel lost as to how it all works. This summer I have curated a programme of free online publishing webinars and creative writing workshops for Brunel University of London that I hope will change all that.
I am on the creative writing faculty at Brunel University where we are the very proud partners of the Nero Book Awards, but we also want to support as many aspiring writers as possible – award-winning writers of the future. As such, we will soon be announcing details of the Nero New Writers Prize in association with Brunel University of London, and why we have launched this series of events.
One of the great privileges for me of being published has always been having the opportunity to share what knowledge I have gleaned along the way to encourage other writers in their own journeys towards publication. That is why I am so delighted to have had the opportunity to curate this series of free online events. Our aim of the series is to support as many writers as possible by offering publishing insights, craft advice and preparing work for submission to publishers, publications, agents and competitions.
We have an incredible line-up of publishing experts and award-winning writers all ready and willing to share their advice and support. My hope is that this series will demystify the publishing process, and encourage anyone who has an instinct that they may like to write to have the confidence to give it a go from the privacy of their own homes.
Programme of Events
To register for free for these online events please click here.
June 25th (7pm-8pm): Meet the Editors: A live panel with editors from three publishing houses: Fourth Estate, Galley Beggar and #Merky Books, a publishing imprint founded by Stormzy and Penguin Books.
July 8th (7pm-8pm): Meet the Agents: A live panel with three top literary agents from RCW, PFD and Madeleine Milburn literary agencies explaining the role of literary agents, sharing tips on submissions, finding the right agent and offering industry insights.
July 10th (7pm-8pm): Submitting to Literary Journals: A live panel with editors from three leading literary journals – Stinging Fly, Wasafiri and the London Magazine.
Workshops:
July 23rd, 6.30pm-8.30pm: Writing Children’s Fiction with Liz Hyder, winner of the Children’s Fiction Prize at the Nero Book Awards. Her debut novel, Bearmouth, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award and was The Times Children’s Book of the Year. Her latest novel, The Twelve, won 2024 Nero Book Awards prize for Children’s Fiction and the Tir na n-Og Award 2025 English language category. It was a book of the year in both The Financial Times and The Guardian, one of The Observer’s young adult books of the month and Children’s Book of the Week in The Times.
July 28th, 6.30pm-8.30pm: Writing Creative Non-Fiction with Hannah Lowe. This workshop is for anyone interested in writing memoir, short or long. Using VS Pritchett’s quotation — “It’s all in the art. You get no credit for living”— we’ll explore how to shape life into story through memory, reflection, and craft. No experience needed—just curiosity and a willingness to write. Hannah Lowe is a professor in creative writing at Brunel University of London. She is a poet and memoirist, whose work lies between creative writing, memory studies and postcolonial studies. Hannah is the author of several collections of poetry and a family memoir. In 2021, she won both the Costa Poetry Award and the Costa Book Award for her collection The Kids.
August 6th, 6.30pm- 8.30pm: Writing Short Stories with awardwinning Irish writer Elaine Feeney. Booker Prize nominee Elaine Feeney is a writer and lecturer at the University of Galway. She writes poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. She has published three poetry collections, the most recent being All the Good Things You Deserve in 2024.Her debut novel As You Were won Dalkey Book Festival’s Emerging Writer Prize, The Kate O’ Brien Prize, The Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was also shortlisted the Rathbones-Folio Prize. How to Build a Boat, Feeney’s second novel, was published in 2023. It was nominated for The Booker Prize and shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year. Her short fiction has been published in The Art of The Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories edited by Sinéad Gleeson and widely in publications including The Paris Review, The Stinging Fly, The Moth, The Irish Times, BBC Radio, RTÉ and The Guardian. Elaine’s third novel, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way was published in May 2025 (Harvill Secker / Vintage)
All of the events will be introduced and moderated by myself. The Lost Letters of William Woolf won a Best Newcomer nomination at the 2018 Irish Book Awards. I am also a literary critic for the Irish Times newspaper and a writer for the Sunday Times Magazine.
To register for free for these online events please click here.
The Nero New Writers Prize in association with Brunel University of London aims to discover emerging talent by recognising unpublished and aspiring writers and supporting them with their work.
Running in conjunction with the main Nero Book Awards, entrants will be asked to submit a self-contained piece of original, unpublished fiction (adult or children’s) or narrative non-fiction of up to 5,000 words. The judging panel will be looking for outstanding writing that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Among their prizes, the winner will receive a cash prize, a scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at Brunel University of London as well as an introductory meeting with a literary agent, facilitated by Brunel.
The prize will open for entries on August 1st and close on August 29th at 5pm. It is open to adults who are either citizens of, or living in, the UK and Ireland and aged 18+. Click here for more information. To read more about the MA Creative Writing at Brunel University of London visit here.
