Twelve hopeful novelists will be coming to the Irish Writers Centre, Parnell Square this Friday February 14th for the ninth annual Novel Fair 2020.
Once again, the IWC will be opening their doors to some of the top publishers and agents across Ireland and the UK. The 2020 winners will be pitching their manuscripts directly in what has been described as a ‘Dragon’s Den for writers’.
The 2020 finalists who will be pitching this Valentine’s Day are:
Margaret Ryan, Lisa Frank, Miki Lentin, Angela Keogh, Alison Wells, Catherine Joyce, Laura McKenna, Jonathan Ryder, Cillian Fearon, Estelle Birdy, Olivia Fitzsimons and Caoimhe O’Gorman.
The finalists were picked by a panel of expert judges including Christine Dwyer Hickey, whose novel Tatty has been named as this year’s UNESCO One City One Book, and two former Novel Fair winners and novelists Kevin Curran, author of Citizens and Beatsploitation, and Niamh Boyce author of The Herbalist and Her Kind.
Last year’s writers enjoyed a number of successes with five of the twelve finalists securing publishing deals including Marianne Lee whose debut novel A Quiet Tide will be published by New Island Books this April, and Alice Lyons experimental debut Oona will be published by Lilliput Press in March. Previous Novel Fair winners also include Catriona Lally, who was recently awarded the prestigious Lannan Literary Prize for Fiction, worth $100,000.
