First Novel Award 2026 Longlist Announcement

Despite a rocky start, with our old website crashing at the absolute worst time — the final weekend before submissions closed (we're very sorry about that) — we received a whopping 1,458 entries!

Our team of editors went through several rounds of reading, and the strongest entries were sent to the judges, literary agent Olivia Maidment and author Freya Bromley. We managed to find a date at the beginning of August when no one was on annual leave (no mean feat), and after a lot of fun debate and passionate speeches in favour of our favourites, we managed to select a longlist.

A huge congratulations to the authors of these 22 longlisted titles:

Before It Ends Again

Blue Mountain

Comets

Concept Contamination

Every Day, Stella

Ghost Trails

Gold, Kimchi and Yellow Silk

Ink

Loch Assynt

Mystery Shopper

Observation Error

PANOPTICON

She Walked On Water

Tethered by Name

The Luxury of Choice

The Salt Flats

This Tender Soil

Three Seasons of Fever

Until Forever

Where a heart should be

Wink

Yon Time

Not being on the longlist doesn't mean that your novel isn't excellent. Many factors come into curating a longlist, and unfortunately, some extremely worthy novels don't always make it through. You should be proud of putting your novel out there, and our readers will remember your words.

BPA partner Frances has written a blog with some thoughts and feedback on reading for this year's competition, which will give you some insight into the process.

There were times when our fingers itched to give a specific opening a good edit because we could see exactly what was needed to turn a maybe/no into a yes. If you've reached the Top 100 in a competition especially, we would really recommend getting at least a submission package review, because there will often be something fixable stopping your novel from going through. This recommendation, of course, is valid for anyone serious about getting published.

That's why we're giving a First Novel Award special offer: £50 off all reports, including the submission package review, until September 30th. We'll also do a special report on your First Novel Award submission — opening 5,000 words, cover letter and synopsis — for £199.

Send an email to info@bluepencilagency.com to benefit from these special offers.

This year, we noticed a lot of AI, dystopian and coercive-control-related themes, and, surprisingly, very few crime novels.

We also encountered signs of AI-assisted writing in some entries, though we are still working out how best to identify and tackle this new issue. In the words of our Short Story Award judge, Corissa Hollenbeck, looking forward, we will prioritise writing that feels distinctly human. Why give away the joy of creation to a machine? Our imaginations are one of the few things that can't be taken away from us (yet), and your voice is intrinsically linked to your unique experiences. We want to discover that voice on the page.

We look forward to reading your work, and only your work, in our future writing competitions. This year, we are also running the Short Story Award and the Pitch Prize.

Let us discover what wonderful things you've been writing!