WriteNow is our award-winning programme which aims to find, mentor and publish new writers from communities under-represented on the nation's bookshelves.
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Creative Responsibility: WriteNow
Finding new writers with different stories to tell
"Sometimes you need someone or something to empower you: to show you the truth of what you can be and that's what the WriteNow process did for me. I have gained strength from this process, and Penguin Random House has made me feel like I have a seat at the table."
Published author and WriteNow mentee Charlene Allcott
Through WriteNow we host free workshops for talented writers, offering information and inspiration about how to get published. Participants are given the chance to hear from published authors and literary agents, and receive personalised one-to-one feedback on their work from an editor. We then take forward the most promising writers onto our year-long mentoring programme - pairing them with one of our editors to help develop their manuscript, with the ultimate aim of publishing their work.
WriteNow at a glance
- 450 writers at 9 regional workshops
- 98% said the workshop had increased their confidence
- 33 writers mentored
- 7 book deals and counting
A new route to publication
So far, we have published six writers through WriteNow: Charlene Allcott, Geraldine Quigley, Emma Morgan, Emma Smith-Barton, Elizabeth Jane-Burnett and Rashmi Sirdeshpande.
Books discovered through WriteNow
WriteNow 2019
In 2019 we're ‘doing a Glastonbury’ and taking a year out to give ourselves the opportunity to re-group and focus on the 32 current and alumni mentees on the programme. This means that we won’t be opening up WriteNow for new applications or hosting any regional workshops in 2019. But don’t worry – we will definitely be returning in 2020.
We’ll be updating this page with news about next year’s programme towards the end of 2019. In the meantime, you can sign up to our WriteNow newsletter below to be notified about plans for next year.
