Anna worked in publishing for ten years. While in the industry, she worked for independent, radical publishers in roles spanning marketing to commissioning. She spent some time as a literary scout’s assistant and founded a successful writing group in Brighton. For the last four years, she worked at Literary Consultancy Jericho Writers as Head of Events, heading up the Festival of Writing in York and London, and organising their rolling online programme of events and competitions.

Anna is a trustee of New Writing South and is currently working to promote The Coast is Queer LGBTQ+ Literary Festival. She co-authored THE LITTLE BOOK OF ICK (Laurence King). 

Sara Cox, is a writer and editor an founder of Cheshire Novel Prize.  Sara was awarded an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and worked briefly at Coronation Street as a stroyliner. Sara is passionate about new writers and helping writing talent rise to the surface in a competitive industry. Sara is offering our three winners an  editorial report on their first 10,00 words and synopsis  and a one hour 1-1 Zoom call.

Kit de Waal's debut novel, My Name Is Leon, was an international bestseller, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC. A collection of short stories, Supporting Cast was published in 2020.

An anthology of working-class memoir, Common People was crowdfunded and edited by Kit in 2019. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. Kit founded her own TV production company, Portopia Productions and the Big Book Weekend. She was named the FutureBook Person of the Year. Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University. Her new novel Best of Everything will be released in April 2025

Wendy Erskine’s two short story collections, 'Sweet Home' and 'Dance Move', are published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. She has been listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and the Edge Hill Prize. She was awarded the Butler Prize for Literature and the Edge Hill Readers’ Prize. Dance Move was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Her writing on arts of all kinds, from sculpture to body-building, has been published in the Guardian and the Quietus among others,.

'The Benefactors' is her debut novel will be published in 2025.

Tony Flynn is a highly respected actor whose career has spanned over 30 years. His theatre credits list many of Ireland’s leading theatre companies.

Tony has also appeared in numerous high profile television productions including Blue Lights, The Fall & The Woman In White (BBC). 

Writer and editor Cathy Galvin established Word Factory to bring the best short story writers together for readings, masterclasses and to share new work. She is committed to building a supportive community of writers from every walk of life. As a champion of the short story form she also founded the Sunday Times Short Story Award. She has been a staff journalist for the Sunday Times and Newsweek. She has published three poetry pamphlets with Melos & Guillemot Press and is working on a new collection as a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her awards include a Hawthornden Fellowship and a DYCP grant from Arts Council England. She is currently a director of The Tablet and a Trustee of English PEN.

Melanie Giedroyc is an actress, comedian and television presenter. She was part of the comedy writing/performing duo Mel and Sue and became a household name for her chat show and as presenter on The Great British Bake Off.

Mel has judged the BBC National Short Story Award and has written two memoirs. Her debut novel, The Best Things, was a Sunday Times Bestseller.

Sophie Haydock is an author, editor and journalist (Sunday Times, Financial Times, Guardian) and curator of Folkestone Book Festival. Her debut novel, 'The Flames', was longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award, won the Impress Prize for New Writers and has been translated into seven languages. 'The Flames' was also named in The Times as one of the Best Historical Fiction Books of 2022. The Italian translation, Le Fiamme, won the Premio Letterario Edoardo Kihlgren for debut novel in Milan, 2024.

Sophie’s second novel, Madame Matisse, about the women who were integral to the life of the French artist Henri Matisse, will be published by Doubleday in February 2025. 

Cate is an Australian author widely published as a novelist, short story author, poet and essayist. She currently writes for Womankind magazine, the Saturday Paper, the Monthly and Griffith Review, and is in high demand as a writing teacher, mentor and editor in both adult writing workshops and writer-in-residency school programs.

She has taught throughout Australia, as well as in Singapore, Vietnam, Bali, Fiji, Vanuatu, France, Austria and the U.S.A. She is currently a faculty member of Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing program in Portland, Oregon, teaching both fiction and non-fiction. 

Ingrid Persuad is the author of two novels, Love After Love and The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh. Her debut novel, Love After Love, won the Costa First Novel award, the Author’s Club First Book Award and the Indie Book Award for Fiction. Other prizes include the BBC National Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She was born in Trinidad and lives in London.

Aki Schilz is the Director of The Literary Consultancy, the UK's longest-running consultancy for writers. She is a judge for various literary prizes including the Bridport First Novel Award and the Creative Future Writing Awards. Aki has featured in the Bookseller 150, a list of the most influential figures in UK publishing, twice: in 2020 and 2021.

In 2017, Aki set up the Rebecca Swift Foundation, a charity that advances the craft, creativity and wellbeing of women poets, and in 2020 she launched Being A Writer, a membership platform for writers that prioritises creativity and wellbeing. She is the current Vice Chair of English PEN.