The Janklow & Nesbit UK Fiction Prize 2025: Literary Love Stories

We are thrilled to be launching the Janklow & Nesbit UK Fiction Prize 2025 – in celebration of our UK office’s 25th year – and we are looking exclusively for literary love stories.
We are seeking literary fiction with a romantic plot at its core. We’re very proud to represent a number of authors who do just this: André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name (“This novel is hot. A love letter.”); Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (“A modern day Heartburn”); Jaroslav Kalfar’s Spaceman of Bohemia (“An Intergalactic Odyssey of Love”); Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (“moving, human, and challenging”); Less by Andrew Sean Greer (“read and weep"), to name a few.*
The winning prize will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates excellent literary talent in an exquisitely-told love story. The winner will receive a prize fund of £2,000, a one-to-one session with the Executive Publisher at Sceptre Books, and will be supported by Janklow & Nesbit UK in writing to the end of their novel with an offer of representation.
- Submissions should take the form of 5,000 words of a fiction work-in-progress, and not under option or contract. We are looking for adult fiction only.
- The application window will open on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 and run until Wednesday 9th April 2025.
- Entrants must write in the English language, be aged 18 years old and over, and reside within the UK or Republic of Ireland.
- The work submitted must be original and previously unpublished. Applicants may not be under contract to any publisher for any work or title in any language.
- You must be an unpublished writer. Applications are open to writers who have not previously published a full-length book of their own prose writing (including self-published or published online) excluding a collection of their own poetry. They may have published short prose writing within a magazine/anthology.
- All submissions and their documents must be entered through this submission form. Works of fiction must be accompanied with a synopsis and biographical note.
- The competition is free to enter.
Timeline
Initial Applications
- We are asking for the first 5,000 words of your novel, a brief synopsis and a biographical note.
- All submissions must be entered via this link, which will take you to a submission form. For more details on how to enter, please scroll down.
- Applications close at 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 9th April 2025.
Longlisting
- Applicants who are longlisted will be notified by email no later than Monday 12th May 2025 and will be asked to submit a further 10,000 words and a detailed plot synopsis, including spoilers, to be considered for the shortlist. The longlist will be announced on Monday 19th May 2025.
- The longlist will be judged by an initial panel consisting of members of Janklow & Nesbit UK, including literary agents Emma Leong and Claire Paterson Conrad.
Shortlisting
- Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a maximum of 20,000 additional words by Friday 13th June 2025. The shortlist will be announced on Monday 16th June 2025.
- These selected writers will be judged by a secondary panel consisting of Emma Leong, Claire Paterson Conrad, Fede Andornino, Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Roisin Kelly, and Kate Weinberg. They will choose a winner by Wednesday 16th July 2025.
- The winner will be announced on Monday 21st July 2025.
The 2025 Judges
Emma Leong started her publishing career at Janklow & Nesbit in 2019, with a background in both Law and Psychology. Her fiction clients include Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Olivia Petter, Helena Echlin, Rupert Dastur and, on behalf of the US office, Aisha Muharrar, Katherine Min, Idra Novey to name a few. She has judged for the London Writers Award, the Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize, and the Guardian and 4th Estate 4thWrite Short Story Prize.
Claire Paterson Conrad started her career in publishing at Chatto & Windus, followed by stints at Granta and Canongate Books before a move to New York where she became Publisher of the NYRB Classics series. Claire subsequently joined J&N to help establish their London office, where she is now a Literary Agent and Director. She works closely with the US team, particularly Lynn Nesbit, co-agenting authors such as Monica Heisey, Jeffrey Eugenides and André Aciman, Maaza Mengiste and the Estate of Joan Didion. Claire does this work alongside her own broad but carefully curated list which spans, in fiction, from Michel Faber to Eva Rice and, in non-fiction, from Oliver Burkeman to Gillian Anderson.
Fede Andornino is Executive Publisher at Sceptre, the literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, where he publishes literary fiction with an edge, LGBTQ+ literature and fiction in translation. Before joining Sceptre, he spent five years at Weidenfeld and Nicholson. He has published authors including Kaliane Bradley, Clare Chambers, Richard Coles, Georgi Gospodinov, Tom Lamont, Meg Mason, Andrew Miller, David Mitchell, David Nicholls, Siri Hustvedt, Sandro Veronesi, Charlotte Wood, Jacqueline Woodson and Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Books he has published have won the International Booker Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Stella Prize, The German Book Prize and the Premio Strega, and have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Miles Franklin Award, among others.
Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, The New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at Brittle Paper. He was the Runner-up for the 2021 J.F Powers Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and Morland Foundation Scholarship and was profiled as one of the "Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction" in Electric Literature. He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers and Tash Aw. He is now a teaching fellow for English at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Roisin Kelly is a journalist at The Sunday Times, currently working as a Commissioning Editor on the News Review section. Before that, Roisin spent four years as a writer on Style Magazine, writing features across a range of subjects including dating and relationships, and commissioning essays and interviews with celebrated female authors, as well as being a fierce champion of debut writers. Roisin has made multiple appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and is a regular contributor on Times Radio. She is a keen reader and always looking for the next book that everybody will be speaking about.
Kate Weinberg was born and lives in London. She studied English at Oxford and creative writing in East Anglia. She has worked as a slush pile reader, a bookshop assistant, a journalist and a ghost writer. Her first novel, The Truants, was published by Bloomsbury in 2019; it was chosen as a Book of the Year by The Observer and The New York Times. Her second novel, There's Nothing Wrong With Her, followed in August 2024.
Formatting Requirements
- Document size: A4 Spacing: double-spaced
- Format: Word Document or PDF Format
- Font: 12-point, using either Calibri or Times New Roman
- Page numbering: Ensure all pages are numbered. This formatting is required for the novel, synopsis and biographical note.
How to Enter
Please follow the instructions carefully to submit your application:
Initial Submission
- Submit the first 5,000 words of your novel through this submission form.
- Following the first 5,000 words of your novel, include a synopsis of your literary love story and biographical note on a new page (no more than 1-2 pages of A4). You can add sub-headings so it is clear to our judges which parts are which.
- Combine all the above into one attachment ready to submit.
- Your biographical note should include a statement about your writing life, background, any writerly experience or influences, and the reasons behind writing your literary love story.
After submission, a ‘Thank You’ confirmation of receipt will appear on the page. Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email.
Naming the Attachment ready for uploading:
- Title your file in the following format:
- TITLEOFNOVEL_AUTHORNAME
- Example: If your name is Jane Doe and your novel is titled "LITERARY LOVE STORY", name your document as LITERARYLOVESTORY_JANEDOE.
- Your uploaded submission must be saved in this format for it to be accepted.
Longlisting
- Longlisted applicants will be notified by email.
- You will be asked to submit an additional 10,000 words and a detailed plot outline (including spoilers).
- Ensure you have the first 15,000 words of your novel ready when you enter, so you can promptly submit the additional pages if requested.
- If you do not submit the additional 10,000 words by the deadline given, you will be removed from the competition.
- Please monitor your emails during the week of May 5th 2025 to avoid missing the deadline if you are longlisted.
Shortlisting
- We will invite the shortlistees to send up to 40,000 words of their novel, or as much as they can. The more you write, the more opportunity we will have to see your potential. We ask that you submit this by Thursday 12th June.
FAQs
I haven’t finished writing my novel. Can I still enter?
Yes. You need only submit your first 5,000 words by 9th April 2025 and have the first 15,000 words ready to submit by 12th May 2025. Shortlisted Applicants will be invited to send up to 40,000 words, or as much as they can, by Friday 13th June so do factor this into your planning, bearing in mind how long you typically take to write and edit your work.
I have previously written short story, essay or poem which has been published. Can I still enter?
Yes, as long as you have not had a full-length novel published previously, you can still enter.
Can I enter a short story?
No. The submission needs to be the 5,000 words of a planned full-length work of fiction.
Can I submit more than one entry?
No, entries are strictly limited to one per person.
What should the synopsis and the autobiographical note look like?
The synopsis should outline key plot details and anything else you deem relevant to give the judges a sense of how the rest of the book will pan out. Even if the novel is unfinished, we do need the ending to be outlined in the synopsis so that we’re able to judge the plot as a whole.
Your biographical note should include a statement about your writing life, background, any writerly experience or influences, and the reasons behind writing your literary love story.
Both should be no more than 1-2 pages of A4.
Do I need to have a final title for the submission?
You will need to submit your entry with a working title.
I am not resident in the UK or ROI, can I still submit?
No. To be eligible to enter you need to be living in the UK or Ireland (nationality is not relevant).
If you are currently homeless or do not have a fixed address, but reside in the UK or ROI, please get in touch with Emma Leong at prize@janklow.co.uk regarding this.
I have submitted my novel to another competition. Can I enter it for the J&N UK Literary Love Stories prize too?
Yes, as long as you adhere to the other eligibility criteria.
Does my entry need to be a literary love story?
Yes, we are only looking for literary love stories. We are looking for literary fiction with a romantic plot at its core, authored by a first-time writer whose exquisitely-told love story demonstrates excellent literary talent.
Do you accept submissions written for a younger audience?
No, this is a prize for adult fiction only; we do not accept submissions written for children, whether Middle Grade or YA.
Can I enter if I have self-published a book before?
No, we do not accept submissions from self-published writers.
Can I enter if I have had a book of poetry published before?
Yes, we do accept submissions from writers who have published a collection of poetry.
Can I have been published in another language?
No, unfortunately we do not accept submissions from authors who have previously been published in any language.
I have an agent/representation, can I still apply?
You must not have agent representation at the time of entering the competition. If you have been represented by an agent in the past, you are still eligible to enter.
If you accept agent representation after your submission and before the judging is complete, you will no longer be eligible to take part in the competition and your entry will be discounted. If you accept agent representation, please inform Emma Leong at prize@janklow.co.uk regarding this.
Can I enter if I have had a short story or an essay published in an anthology, journal or magazine?
Yes.
Can I enter if I have had a script for a play, film or TV published?
Yes.
If you have any problems or questions not covered by this list, send an email with the title QUERY to prize@janklow.co.uk
Terms & Conditions
- This competition is presented and sponsored by Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. of Holborn Town Hall, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD
- This promotion is open to all UK & IRELAND residents except employees of Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. and Janklow & Nesbit Associates and their immediate families, who are not allowed to enter the competition.
- You must be 18 to enter this competition.
- All submissions must be sent in PDF or Word format to the following form: The document name should be the name of your story. Submissions which have been sent by post or means other than the specified form will not be accepted.
- The opening date for entries is 22nd January 2025, the deadline for submissions is 23:59 GMT 9th April 2025. No entries received after this date will be accepted.
- The longlist will be announced on 19th May 2025, the shortlist on 16th June 2025, and the winner on 21st July 2025.
- The winner will receive a prize fund of £2000, a one-to-one session with the Executive Publisher at Sceptre Books, and will be supported by Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. in writing to the end of their novel with an offer of representation.
- Previous winners of a contest sponsored (or co-sponsored) by Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. or Janklow & Nesbit Associates are not allowed to enter.
- No purchase is necessary in order to enter the competition.
- Each submission must be no more than 5,000 words in length. Each submission must be complete as of the time of submission, and composed in English-language prose. Each submission must be your own original work, and must not have been published in a previous version by you or adapted from another work by you. Any submission that does not meet the requirements described herein will not be accepted or considered.
- Only one entry is permitted per person. Any submission made on behalf of another person will not be considered. Multiple submissions from the same entrant will not be considered. By submitting to the competition, you warrant and represent that your submission is your original work and does not infringe the copyright of any third party.
- Our external judges this year are Emma Leong, Claire Paterson Conrad, Federico Andornino, Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Roisin Kelly, and Kate Weinberg. The judges are looking for a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates excellent literary talent in an exquisitely-told love story. Judges in both the initial panel and external panel will also evaluate the potential for the writing to become the basis of a publication, the originality of concept behind the writing, and the quality of the writing.
- Entrants who have made the Longlist will be notified by email no later than 12th May 2025. Where we require details from you, if you do not provide such details within 5 days of notification, we reserve the right to select a different Applicant.
- You must live in the UK & IRELAND in order to enter the competition.
- At the time of entering the contest or when the winner is chosen, you cannot (i) be represented by a literary agent or (ii) under a publishing contract, with the exception of contracts for academic works.
- You must be prepared and willing, if requested to do so, to undertake reasonable publicity and promotional responsibilities in relation to your submission and this competition.
- The prize is non-refundable and non-transferable.
- No prize alternatives are available.
- Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. reserves the right in their reasonable discretion to substitute the prize with another prize of equal or greater value.
- No correspondence between Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd., Janklow & Nesbit Associates and the entrants can be entered into, unless at Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd.’s request. Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. will not respond to unsolicited communications.
- There is no obligation on Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. or Janklow & Nesbit Associates to publish any of the entrants to this competition, in any form, or to offer any sort of editorial advice or any other service of any kind.
- The judges’ decision is final; unsuccessful entrants will not be notified.
- You will retain all copyright, and all other rights, in your submission.
- By entering this competition, you agree that, if you win, your name and entry may be used (i) for the purpose of announcing the winner and/or distributed to individuals who request details of the winner and/or (ii) in any related publicity by Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd., without additional payment or permission.
- Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. will not be able to return submissions; please make sure you retain a copy.
- By entering the competition you thereby accept these Terms and Conditions. Any breach of these Terms and Conditions by you will mean that your entry will not be valid, and you will not be allowed to enter this competition.
- Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. reserves the right to investigate any irregularities and disqualify entrants at its absolute discretion.
- Any personal information you give us will be used by Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. solely for reviewing your submission and will not be passed on to any other parties without your agreement.
- Under no circumstances will Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. or Janklow & Nesbit Associates be responsible for any loss, damages, costs or expenses arising from or in any way connected with any errors, defects, interruptions, malfunctions or delays in the promotion of the competition or prize.
- Any dispute relating to the competition shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
*https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/books/review/DErasmo.t.htm; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Good-Actually-anticipated-addictive-ebook/dp/B09RPCJB5Y (Lena Dunham); https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spaceman-Bohemia-Jaroslav-Kalfar/dp/0316273449; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marriage-Plot-Jeffrey-Eugenides/dp/0007441304 (The Times); https://www.amazon.co.uk/Less-Winner-Pulitzer-Prize-Fiction/dp/0349143595 (Emerald Street)