Contemporary – Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
167-169 Great Portland street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
UK: +44 (0)330 043 0150
US: +1 (646) 974 9060

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Elinor Davies

Elinor Davies began her publishing career as a Literary Agent’s Assistant and later Associate Agent at one of London’s leading literary agencies, Madeleine Milburn Agency, where she specialised in building a list of adult fiction ranging from commercial through to upmarket. Among the authors she was lucky enough to work closely with were Yomi Adegoke, Clare Pooley, Tracy Rees, Kirsty Greenwood and C. L. Miller. Since then, Elinor has established herself as an editor and author mentor working with organisations such as Asian Women Writers, Literature Wales and various university creative writing courses to help authors shape their manuscripts and enter the agent querying process with confidence. She recently chaired the cohort selection process for the Representing Wales Mentorship Programme 2025 and regularly takes part in panels and workshops aimed at demystifying the querying process for authors. She holds a university degree in Publishing Media from Oxford Brookes University.
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Mia Colleran

Mia is a freelance editor specialising in fiction and memoir with experience at HarperCollins Publishers and a New York literary agency. She was an editor at 4th Estate for three years in London where she honed her editorial abilities over countless manuscripts (both non-fiction and fiction). Books Mia has worked on include A Cook’s Book by Nigel Slater, Easy Wins by Anna Jones, Good Girls by Hadley Freeman, and The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson. Mia is passionate about helping authors find their voice. She particularly likes to work with debut authors on this and helps them to work out the big questions that inform their writing. She helps authors to find their voice by proposing writing exercises, suggesting literary influences and probing at the seams a story. Mia also has experience pitching books for acquisition in house and therefore can recommend comparable titles to help place a work in progress, something that is especially valuable for authors seeking the traditional publishing route. She has lots of hands-on experience working with authors from debuts to Sunday Times bestsellers, and she has interviewed many at book festivals. She has also worked as a freelance book reviewer for The Paris Review, Guardian, Irish Times, and others, and therefore is experienced at accurately distilling a book down to the bare bones and identifying what makes good writing truly stand out. Before working as an editor she was an award-winning bookseller for several years and she was also the recipient of the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award.
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Rebecca Roy

Rebecca has over ten years’ experience in the publishing industry, commissioning commercial fiction for the UK’s leading publishing houses, including Little Brown, Simon & Schuster and Bonnier Books. Throughout her career, she edited and published everyone from up-and-coming debuts to international bestsellers, including Jenny Colgan, Chris Whitaker, Heidi Swain, Santa Montefiore, Roberta Kray and Paige Toon. While working as an editor, Rebecca was responsible for acquiring commercial fiction for her publishing lists, so she knows exactly what makes a manuscript stand out to an editor or an agent. She also has invaluable inside knowledge about what publishers are looking for. Most importantly, Rebecca prides herself on her editorial prowess and loves nothing more than working collaboratively with an author to make their book the best it can be. Rebecca’s editorial experience is vast, and she has edited fiction across all commercial genres, but her particular editorial specialties are romance, historical, crime and thriller. Follow her on twitter: @rebeccaroyedits
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Kesia Lupo

Kesia Lupo started her publishing career in 2013 as Editorial Services Assistant at Pan Macmillan London, working on copy-edits and proofreads largely for the SFF-focussed Tor list. In 2015 she was hired as Junior Editor at YA and MG fiction publisher Chicken House – over the following eight years she was promoted through Editor to Senior Editor, working with Costa Award-winning Jasbinder Bilan and Sunday Times-bestselling Pádraig Kenny among many other talented children’s writers. In 2023, she transitioned to the US and literary agenting, working at the Bindery Agency for a year which she represented adult and children’s fiction. Her clients included Marvellous Michael Anson (author of epic fantasy trilogy Firstborn of the Sun, launching with PRH in 2025) and Caroline Madden (author of darkly funny women’s fiction debut The Marriage Vendetta, publishing with Bonnier UK and HarperCollins US in 2025). Lastly, Kesia is a writer herself with three YA novels out with Bloomsbury UK – fantasies We Are Blood and Thunder and We Are Bound by Stars, and horror/thriller Let’s Play Murder.
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Gideon Roberton

Gideon is an experienced editor, story analyst and a published author. He writes the Drake’s War series of WW2 Espionage Thrillers under the pen name Gideon Saint. Drake’s War has been selected for The Bernard Cornwell Reading Club and has been an Amazon best-seller. Before he took up novel-writing, Gideon previously worked for Twentieth Century Fox, Focus Features, and Universal Pictures International as a story analyst. Gideon also ran a department of a trade publishing business in London for a number of years. Gideon has a BA (hons) in Contemporary Media Practice (Westminster University), an MA in Creative Writing (Lancaster University), an MFA in Creative Writing (Kingston University), and he studied Screenwriting at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Having been on all sides of the table, as an author, editor, publisher, screenwriter and story analyst, Gideon is uniquely placed to help you on your journey to becoming a published author or screenwriter.
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Jon Curzon

Jon Curzon is a literary agent at Artellus Ltd., where he represents writers across fiction and non-fiction; from debut literary fiction (Kyra Wilder’s Little Bandaged Days and Ashleigh Bell Pedersen’s The Crocodile Bride) to titles in history and science (Christopher Othen’s The King of Nazi Paris and Lukasz Bednarski’s Lithium), and memoir (Emily Wells’s A Matter of Appearance). Books Jon has represented have been published in the UK, US, Germany, France, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, Greece – and have been reviewed and featured in the Guardian, The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Times, The TLS, and on Channel 4 News. In addition to his agenting work, Jon has also worked as a freelance editor for literary consultancies and creative writing courses since 2015.
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Rufus Purdy

Rufus Purdy is an experienced editor, currently working at Titan Books. He previously worked as a literary agent, running his own agency, and ran his own editorial-services company. He worked at Curtis Brown from 2012 to 2018, where he combined the roles of Editor, New Writing at Curtis Brown Creative and Editor at its digital imprint Studio 28. Highlights included being the editor for espionage-fiction author Alex Gerlis, who sold more than 180,000 copies of the novels they worked on together, and working with Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford on his memoir Some Fantastic Place (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). Many clients that he has worked with across his roles as editor and writing tutor have found publishing success, including: Paul Laird (The Birth and Impact of Britpop, Pen & Sword), Roisin Maguire (Bardo, Profile Books), Melissa Welliver (My Love Life and the Apocalypse, Chicken House), Natalie Lewis (Don’t Believe the Hype, Hodder), Loraine Peck (The Second Son, Text Publishing) and Adam Simcox (The Dying Squad, Gollancz).
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Juliet Mahony

Juliet Mahony has over ten years experience in the industry, working as a rights manager, literary scout and agent. Her publishing upbringing was at Lutyens and Rubinstein where she started as an assistant, worked her way up to rights manager and finally took on clients of her own. During her time there, she worked with best-selling and award-winning writers like Mark Billingham, Claire Fuller and Hannah Richell. She still freelances for her former colleagues and helps prepare manuscripts for publication. Her clients have been published by leading houses, on lists such as Sphere, Scribner and Quercus. She’s worked for Jenny Darling & Associates in Melbourne with some of the biggest names in the Australian literary world and, most recently, as a literary scout. This breadth of experience has given her a unique and thorough understanding of the international literary appetite and what it takes for a book to stand out from the crowd.
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Brian Kimberling

Brian Kimberling is the author of two novels published in the US and UK, by Pantheon and Tinder Press respectively. He has also written for The New York Times, NPR, and others. Brian’s first novel, Snapper, about an aimless ornithologist in southern Indiana, was one of NPR’s Best Books of 2013. His second novel, Goulash, which is set in Prague, was also translated into Czech. Brian has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and a long history of teaching, mentoring, collaborating with, or otherwise consorting with fresh distinctive talent. He has worked extensively in publishing and journalism. He has also written and produced three plays. His interests include short stories, climate change writing, and contemporary British domestic fiction. Every couple of years Brian re-reads The Odyssey and cooks the food Odysseus eats in between reads. Brian was born in southern Indiana, but for the last twenty years he has called southwestern England home.
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Becky Stradwick

Becky has worked in the industry for 23 years, as a publisher, literary agent and bookseller. As Editorial Director at Penguin Random House, she published authors such as Susan Cooper, James Dashner, Jason Segel, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Damian Dibben, Ellie Irving, Fox Benwell, Nancy Holder, Debbie Viguie, Lauren Kate, John Stephens, Heather Demetrios, Rosemary Clement Moore and Michael Scott. As literary agent at Darley Anderson’s, she represented authors including Phil Earle, Michelle Harrison, Carmen Reid, Jenna Burtenshaw, Rob Stevens, Adrienne Kress and Lisa Clark. Before this she worked as a bookseller, managing Books etc branches, before becoming Head of Children’s books for Borders UK, where she won Children’s Bookseller of the Year two years running. She has written for THE ARTISTS AND WRITERS YEARBOOK, THE BOOKSELLER and PUBLISHING NEWS. Some of her favourite authors include Philip Pullman, Malorie Blackman, Jonathan Stroud, Akwaeke Emezi and Elizabeth Wein. Her all-time favourite books are THE BORRIBLE TRILOGY by Michael Larrabeiti, WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams and HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman.
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Richard Roper

Richard is an author and experienced editor, having worked as a senior commissioning editor for non-fiction at Headline (part of Hachette UK), where he published several Sunday Times bestsellers. His debut, Something to Live For (commercial reading group fiction), was published by Orion (UK) and Penguin (US), and has sold in twenty languages. His second novel, When We Were Young, came out in 2021, followed by his third, This Disaster Loves You, in 2024. As an editor at Headline, he worked mainly in biography and narrative non-fiction. He has published memoirs by comedians James Acaster, Miles Jupp, Katy Wix, and Joel Dommett. He has also worked with the likes of Dave Davies of The Kinks, sports stars Steven Gerrard and Andy Murray, brands like Downton Abbey, and quirky narratives such as A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross. Find Richard on Twitter here: @richardroper
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Susan Allott

Susan Allott is a critically acclaimed author whose debut novel, The Silence, was published internationally by Harper Collins in 2020 and was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger award. Her second novel, The Imposter, was published in summer 2023 with Borough Press. Susan studied English literature and Media & Communications. She is also a Faber Academy alumna, but she credits the Jericho Writers self-edit course with her ultimate success. Visit Susan’s website, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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Kate Rizzo

Kate Rizzo works as a Rights Director at a London literary agency, and has worked at agencies her entire publishing career. Her role in selling an author’s work abroad gives her a keen eye for what a manuscript needs to find a publishing home and captivate readers. She has sold translation rights for writers like Laura Barnett, Lucy Clarke, Kate Davies, Joseph Knox, Maria Realf, Holly Seddon, Clare Swatman, and Sarah Waters, and has worked for a number of bestselling writers in genres as broad as crime/thriller, women’s fiction, literary, memoir, narrative non-fiction and the sciences. Find Kate on Twitter here: @KateRizzz
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Vee Walker

Vee Walker is an author of fiction and non-fiction with a love of family history and heritage. Her novels are so closely based on archive material that they can be used as academic source texts. Vee’s debut novel, Major Tom’s War (Kashi House), evolved from a narrative non-fiction account of an unlikely WWI courtship into gripping historical fiction. Recently, her short story Nice Dog was shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Competition 2024. As part of this experience, she was interviewed by Kirsty Wark on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and you can listen here (starting from around twelve minutes in). An abridged version of Nice Dog can be heard on BBC Sounds here. Vee honed her writing/editing skills as a heritage consultant for 20+ years, working with museums and natural/cultural/historic sites throughout the UK. Her poetry and descriptive writing can be found within unusual interpretive installations at historic houses, on mountains, in forests and along the coast. She has also been commissioned to write pieces of site-based drama by The Royal Geographical Society (Antarctic Science, 2001), British Waterways (the AHI Caliba Award-winning Harry’s Cut, set on the 1950s Birmingham canals network, 2002), and The National Trust for Scotland (#FindAleckie, 2019). Vee often runs creative writing workshops. Find Vee on Threads at @veewalkerwriters and on Facebook here.
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Cecile Shanahan

Cecile is an experienced editor and proofreader who adores helping writers to make their words shine. She has a special interest in children’s and young adult literature and educational publishing, but often works on general fiction and non-fiction titles too. Cecile Shanahan has tertiary qualifications in Professional Editing and Proofreading, Secondary Education, English Literature and Journalism. Since joining Jericho Writers, she has assisted more than 20 authors to progress their writing projects through agent submission pack assessments, manuscript assessments, developmental edits, copy edits, line edits, proofreading and post-editorial support.
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Katy Massey

Katy Massey is an author and former journalist. Her memoir, Are We Home Yet? (Jacaranda Books) was published in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Portico Prize. In addition, her fiction and non-fiction has been widely anthologised, including Common People edited by Kit de Waal from Unbound, The Place for Me, published by Scholastic, and upcoming speculative collection Glimpse, from Peepal Tree Press. She has recently delivered her first novel, an unusual take on the crime genre, to her agent. Katy has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. Find Katy on twitter here: @TangledRoots1 
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Mary Hargreaves

Mary Hargreaves is an author and editor with a decade of experience. After writing her first novel, This Is Not A Love Story (Trapeze, 2020 ), she decided to take her editing career further and joined the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders, where she undertook a fiction editing course. Her second novel, Enough Already, came out in 2021. Mary writes women’s fiction, and has a particular interest in funny tales about imperfect women. She knows how hard the writing process is, and loves nothing more than helping talented authors make their work the best it can be.
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Clare Coombes

Clare Coombes is an author, editor and literary agent with over 15 years’ experience of writing and editing professionally. She is a co-founder of the first Liverpool-based literary agency, who has already closed a number of major multi-book deals for debut authors since launching in late 2020. Clare is a published author of two novels, Definitions (2015) and We Are of Dust (2018) – which received development funding from the Liverpool Film Office for a TV adaptation. Her experience spans the breadth of editorial services and includes work across a variety of forms including full fiction manuscripts, anthologies, non-fiction proposals and pitches for film and TV. She also has a background in PR and marketing, alongside teaching roles on creative writing programmes, including at post-graduate level, on topics from approaching an agent to self-editing.   Find Clare’s agency on Twitter here: @LiverpoolLit  
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Em Norry

Em Norry is a fiction and non-fiction MG/YA author, with her books being published by Scholastic, Puffin, Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury, and Hodder Education. She writes under both Em Norry and E. L. Norry. Her books include Son of the Circus (2019, Scholastic), The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela (2020, Puffin), Amber Undercover (2021, OUP), Football Legends #5: Lionel Messi (2021, Scholastic), Mary Prince (2022, Scholastic), Fable House (2023, Bloomsbury), Fable House: Heart of Fire (2024, Bloomsbury). She has had short stories published in the following collections: Home Again: Stories about Coming Home from War (2020, Scholastic), Happy Here (2021, Knights Of), The Place for Me: Stories from the Windrush (2021, Scholastic), A Very Merry Murder Club (2021, Farshore), The Super Sunny Murder Club (2024, Farshore). Em has previously written for a younger age group of reluctant and dyslexic readers: A Good Friend (Hodder Education). Find Em on X here: @elnorry_writer More information can be found at https://elnorry.com/
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Rosie Walker

Rosie Walker is an author and has four published psychological thrillers from Bookouture and Harper Collins’ One More Chapter: Secrets of a Serial Killer (2020), The House Fire (2022), The Baby Monitor (2024) and My Husband’s Ex (2024). She has two more novels coming out from Bookouture in 2025 and 2026. Rosie gained a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, which taught her the ins and outs of great fiction: structure, pace, plot, characterisation and conflict. She also learned the art of providing insightful feedback on others’ writing, whether that’s big-picture plot issues or the detail of a line edit. She is currently writing her fifth novel and working as a freelance editor, specialising in psychological thrillers and women’s fiction. She loves adult fiction with mysteries and puzzles: secret passageways, abandoned houses, the novel version of Jonathan Creek, or the Famous Five for grown ups. She also loves modern romcoms with strong female characters and lots of tropes! Find Rosie on Twitter here: @ciderwithrosie
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Emma Cooper

Emma Cooper is the author of highly acclaimed book club fiction novels. She has had four books published so far by Headline Review (an imprint of Hachette UK): The Songs of Us (2018), The First Time I Saw You (2019), If I Could Say Goodbye (2020), and It Was Always You (2022). Her debut, The Songs of Us, was snapped up in multiple pre-empts and auctions and was short-listed for the RNA contemporary novel of the year award. Her work has since been translated into seven different languages. Find Emma on X here: @ItsEmmacooper You can find more information about Emma here: https://emmacooperauthor.wordpress.com/
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Trisha Sakhlecha

Trisha Sakhlecha is the critically acclaimed author of two psychological thrillers, Your Truth or Mine? and Can You See Me Now?, published by Pan Macmillan. Trisha’s writing has been compared to that of Salman Rushdie, been praised by award-winning authors and reviewed in the Sunday Times, the Times, the Guardian, the Herald, Harper’s Bazaar, Daily Mail and more. She’s been on panels at festivals and events and spoken about her work and the importance of representation on BBC Radio 4 Open Book, BBC Radio Kent & Talk Radio. Trisha enjoys crime, thriller and upmarket women’s fiction and has particular interest in novels featuring complex female protagonists and diverse stories. Trisha grew up in New Delhi and now lives in London. Find Trisha on Twitter here: @TrishSakhlecha
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Neema Shah

Neema Shah is an award-winning author and marketer. Her debut novel Kololo Hill was published in 2021 by Picador and has featured in The Independent, The Irish Times, Marie Claire and Daily Mail among others. Neema’s work won the Literary Consultancy Pen Factor Live and was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award, First Novel Prize and York Festival of Writing Best Opening Chapter competitions. Kololo Hill was also longlisted for the Retreat West Novel Prize, Exeter Novel Prize, SI Leeds Literary Prize and York Festival of Writing Pitch Perfect awards. Her flash fiction won the Curtis Brown #WriteCBC competition and came second prize in the Casket of Fictional Delights, judged by Kit de Waal. Neema developed her writing through the University of East Anglia Writing Fiction course and Jericho Writers Self Edit Your Novel course among others. She mentors writers including those from under-represented backgrounds and is passionate about building a more diverse publishing industry. Neema has a Law LLB degree and is a Chartered Institute of Marketing qualified marketer. Find Nemma on Twitter here: @NeemaMShah Author image © Alexander James
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Eleni Kyriacou

Eleni Kyriacou is an author, journalist, and editor. She has two published novels, She Came To Stay, which was selected by Hachette for their Future Bookshelf initiative and is an Amazon number 1 bestseller, and The Unspeakable Acts Of Zina Pavlou, which was chosen as a BBC2 Behind the Covers TV Book Club pick. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, Marie Claire, Grazia and Red, among others, and she has also edited national magazines. She has spent her career predominately in women’s publishing. Born in London to Greek Cypriot parents, Eleni is particularly interested in stories about people who feel they don’t belong. She’s obsessed with the 1950s, but equally loves contemporary fiction. You can find her on X, Insta and FB: @elenikwriter and her website is www.elenikwriter.com    
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Louise Tondeur

Louise Tondeur is a writer of fiction, poetry, plays, and non-fiction. Her published works include two novels, The Water’s Edge and The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls (Headline Review), a short story collection called Unusual Places (Cultured Llama, 2018), and non-fiction writing guides. Louise has an MA in Creative Writing, a PhD, and has worked as a Drama teacher and Creative Writing lecturer. She has supported countless writers with both written and verbal feedback, and brings her knowledge of theatre and creative writing into conversations with emerging writers. You can find more information about Louise here: www.louisetondeur.co.uk Find Louise on Twitter here: @LouiseTondeur
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Mary Torjussen

Mary Torjussen is the author of psychological suspense. Her first novel, Gone Without a Trace (2016) was simultaneously bought by Headline in the UK and Penguin in the US. Ecosse bought the TV option and it was also translated into nine languages. Her follow up novels are The Girl I Used to Be (2018) and The Closer You Get (2020). She loves to write about women who find themselves in a perilous situation where the danger is close to home. She lives near Liverpool and likes to use local settings for her novels. Mary has an MA in Creative Writing, has worked as a teacher, gives talks in bookshops, libraries and to students on creative writing courses, and has been on panels at CrimeFest in Bristol, ThrillerFest in New York, Bouchercon in Toronto and Iceland Noir in Reykjavík.
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Dexter Petley

Dexter is an acclaimed author and experienced editor. He has written several novels, a translation, literary non-fiction and a memoir of childhood. These include Little Nineveh (Polygon 1995), Joyride (Fourth Estate, 1999), White Lies (Fourth Estate 2003) and One True Void (Two Ravens Press 2008). Dexter publishes regularly and is now considered to be one of our most original British nature writers. He is one of the founding writers on the cult website Caught By The River, contributing chapters to both their nature anthologies. As a long serving editor with Jericho Writers, (since 2005) many of Dexter’s clients have achieved considerable success in finding agents and publishers. Among them is Costa shortlisted novelist, Elisa Lodato.
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Sharon Zink

Dr Sharon Zink is an author and former English Literature academic who has over eleven years’ experience of editing and creative writing teaching. Her first novel, Welcome to Sharonville (Unthank Books, 2014), was longlisted for The Guardian First Book Award and is currently being developed as a TV series. She has won numerous awards, such as being named as Young Poet of the Year and Writers Inc. Writer of the Year, as well as being shortlisted three times for The New Writer Short Story Award and for The Raymond Carver Prize. She is very proud that many of her clients have gone on to get agents and deals, including bestselling authors, Amanda Prowse and Kathryn Hughes, as well as the twice Macmillan-published, Mark Gartside, and Kate Glanville, whose books are with Accent and Penguin US. She has recently helped Helen Fisher’s novel become the lead title for Simon and Schuster in 2020. Find Sharon on Twitter here: @SharonZink
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Philip Womack

Philip is an author and Creative Writing lecturer. After graduating with a degree in Classics and English, he worked at Literary Review for four years, before becoming freelance in 2008 on publication of his first novel, The Other Book. Six novels for children followed, including The Liberators, The Double Axe and The Arrow of Apollo, and his first non-fiction work for adults, How to Teach Classics to Your Dog, was published in October 2020. He teaches Creative Writing to BA and MA students at London University, and has been a literary critic for nearly twenty years, as well as a freelance journalist for a variety of national newspapers and magazines, writing on topics such as education and literature, and even an article on pyjamas for Tatler magazine. He is currently on the Management Committee of the Society of Authors and a Contributing Editor to Literary Review. Find Philip on Twitter here: @WomackPhilip
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Stuart Walton

Stuart Walton is an established writer and editor who has had sixteen books published, and has been a senior writer and inspector on the Good Food Guide for thirty years. His published works range from a history of intoxicants, Out of It (now in its second edition), to critical studies of the emotions and the five senses, as well as a debut novel, The First Day in Paradise (2016). His most recent work is a critical examination of love and romance, Sleepless Nights: The Faults and Failings of Love, published by Academica Press in 2024. He has been translated into twelve languages. In his early career, he wrote on food and wine, co-edited the Hachette Wine Guide and has been a senior writer and inspector on the Good Food Guide for thirty years. As well as being a prolific book critic for, among others, the TLS, the London Magazine, the LA Review of Books and Review 31, Stuart is a Royal Literary Fund Tutorial Fellow at Plymouth University and has an Oxford Advanced Certificate in Creative Writing. Find Stuart on Twitter here: @stuartwalton1
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Kathie Weaver

Kathie Weaver is a screenplay, fiction, and nonfiction editor with more than 20 years of experience working with first-time writers to Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize winners. At DreamWorks Pictures and The Mount/Kramer Company, she developed scripts for highly-acclaimed writers and directors, including Horton Foote, Sydney Lumet, Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, Philip Noyce, and others. She has vast experience mentoring both beginning and seasoned screenwriters and authors through all stages of the writing process, from concept to final draft. Kathie studied English literature at Northwestern University and screenwriting at Columbia University.
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Holly Seddon

Holly Seddon is an international bestselling author. Her published books include Try Not to Breathe (Ballantine Books), Don’t Close Your Eyes (Ballantine Books), Love Will Tear Us Apart (Corvus), The Hit List (Trapeze), The Woman on the Bridge (Orion), and The Short Straw (Orion). Holly has worked as a journalist and editor, and co-hosts the Honest Authors Podcast alongside Gillian McAllister. Find her on Twitter here: @hollyseddon
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Sibyl Ruth

Sibyl Ruth is a poet and an experienced teacher and mentor. Sibyl has published two small press collections of poetry and won the Mslexia Poetry Competition. Her poems have been widely anthologised and broadcast. She has also scripted and presented two features for Radio 4. Listen to Them Breathing was about Quaker poets while Terezin Dreams considered the poetry written by her German-Jewish great aunt Rose Scooler, while she was in a concentration camp. She lives in Birmingham and has been the city’s Poet Laureate. Over the years Sibyl has helped many writers realise their ambitions, and artists she has worked with have gone on to win literary prizes and awards. Find her on LinkedIn here.
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Constance Renfrow

Constance Renfrow is the former lead editor of the fiercely independent Three Rooms Press in New York. Here, she edited such titles as Meagan Brothers’s groundbreaking LGBT YA novel Weird Girl and What’s His Name, hailed by Foreword Reviews as “[having] all the makings to become a classic of this generation”; Johanna Drucker’s tremendous debut eco-fiction Downdrift; and Eamon Loingsigh’s eloquent examination of the nineteenth-century Brooklyn Irish, Exile on Bridge Street (Langum Prize Shortlist). She is also a former columnist at DIY MFA, where she offered insight into the book publishing industry. Her first book, Songs of My Selfie: An Anthology of Millennial Stories was a 2016 IndieFAB Finalist, and her short fiction has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and the Best of the Net, and most recently won the Porter House Review Prize in 2019. She received her MFA in fiction from Pacific University.
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Emily Randle

Emily runs her own Editing and Rights Consulting business, working alongside indie authors, indie publishers and consulting for big name international literary agencies. During her time at the agency, she worked with best-selling authors such as Stephen Fry, Paula Hawkins, Owen Jones, Carole Matthews, Sarah Vaughan and Rosie Walsh, alongside national treasure children’s authors such as Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson. She was runner up for the David Miller Bursary in the Deborah Rogers Rights Award 2017. At the start of 2020, Emily launched her own freelance book editing and rights selling business under the name Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy. She also regularly consults for big literary agencies such as Janklow & Nesbit and Johnson & Alcock, in both Rights and Primary Agenting departments.
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Anastasia Parkes

Anastasia Parkes is an author with multiple creative personae. As Anastasia she has published a short story collection (Stabbing the Rain, 2013), and writes ‘human interest’ articles for The Times, The Daily Mail, The Lady, and The Tablet. These articles tackle, with humour and honesty, intensely personal topics such as single motherhood, older parenthood, living with multiple sclerosis, and life as a young English teacher in 1980s Cairo. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Maria Lucas: Daddy’s Girl (2016), and Loved Ones (2017). As Primula Bond she is the successful author of the classy and explosive erotic romance Unbreakable trilogy The Silver Chain (2013), The Golden Locket (2013) and The Diamond Ring (2014), published by HarperCollins. Primula has delivered workshops at the York Festival of Writing and Eroticon in Bristol on how to write sex scenes and Anastasia has taught general short story techniques. Anastasia has an MA in English Literature. She has worked as a Jericho Editor for over 10 years, covering a range of fiction and non-fiction genres.   Find Anastasia on Twitter/X here: @AnastasiaParkes Find Primula on Twitter/X here: @PrimulaBond
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Martin Ouvry

Martin is a writer, editor, teacher and musician. He has more than twenty years’ experience as a writer, reviewer, manuscript assessor, structural editor, writing teacher, mentor, line-editor, copy-editor and proofreader. His fiction has appeared in a range of world-renowned publications including Esquire, The London Magazine and New Writing (Picador). His article ‘How creative writing courses benefit a writer’ has been reprinted twice in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (2023, 2024, 2025). He recently completed his novel The Cost of Loving with the generous support of Arts Council England. Martin has received numerous prizes for his work, including first- and final-year prizes for outstanding achievement (University of East Anglia BA), the Alumni Association prize for fiction (UEA MA), a Hawthornden Fellowship, two Arts Council writer’s awards, and a Wingate Scholarship in literature. He has taught widely, for the British Council, the Arts Council, at City University of London, UEA, Imperial College London and elsewhere. You can find more information about Martin here.
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Nicola Mostyn

Nicola Mostyn has over twenty years experience in the industry, working as an arts journalist, columnist, editor, writing coach and the author of two novels and one non-fiction title. Nicola’s debut The Gods of Love was shortlisted for The Writers’ Guild Best First Novel award, became an I-news top ten debut, a NetGalley top read and an Amazon bestseller. The sequel, The Love Delusion, followed in 2019. Nicola’s non-fiction title, Seven Creative Gremlins, was written in conjunction with a Life Coach and is aimed at helping writers combat common psychological blocks. Nicola has a Master’s Degree in English Literature and a certificate in Teaching Creative Writing Workshops. From 2017 to 2020, Nicola held creative writing workshops in Manchester to help writers make progress on their work in a supportive and relaxed environment. She also runs the website TheUnstoppableAuthor.com, offering support, inspiration and tough love to aspiring and established writers. Nicola can be found at Lost in Folklore on Substack, Lost in Folklore | Nicola Mostyn | Substack, where she writes about folklore, mythology and monsters for her newsletter
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Liz Monument

Liz Monument is an author, writing all kinds of fiction including sci-fi, historical, and horror. Liz’s debut novel, The Eternity Fund was short-listed for Mslexia Magazine’s unpublished novel competition in 2013, becoming a talking book in 2014 (Audible.co.uk), and a paperback in 2015 (Fahrenheit Press). Liz’s second novel Iteration (Fahrenheit Press) was on the submissions list for the Arthur C Clarke Award, 2018. Her third novel, Transcendence, was written for a PhD in Creative Writing. She believes that the mechanics of fiction are identical whether you’re writing literary, genre, or hybrids, and that the same principles can be applied to improve a manuscript regardless of its subject matter or style. Before becoming a full-time novelist and editor, Liz specialised in adult education and taught in the creative arts field for 22 years. As of 2021, Liz is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
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Haydn Middleton

Haydn Middleton has been an author and tutor for almost forty years. He has written extensively for both adults and children. His nine novels for adults, marketed variously as literary fiction and fantasy, include The Ballad of Syd & Morgan which was dramatized in 2023 on BBC Radio 4 and his most recent novel for children is The Girl Who Said No To The Nazis (Pushkin Children’s, 2020). Since 2015 he has taught Creative Writing for Stanford University’s Oxford Program, and more recently for the Sarah Lawrence Programme at Wadham College, Oxford. Before becoming a freelance author of children’s fiction and non-fiction – producing scores of books on subjects ranging from Emmeline Pankhurst to jellyfish – he worked as a history schoolbook editor at Oxford University Press. You can find more information here: www.haydnmiddleton.com.
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Lesley McDowell

Lesley McDowell is the author of fiction, non-fiction, and short stories, and was formerly a literary critic for major newspaper. Lesley has three published novels, The Picnic (Black & White Publishing), Unfashioned Creatures (Saraband) and Clairmont (Wildfire 2024), as well as a work of non-fiction, Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th Century Women Writers (Overlook Duckworth 2010). Her new book, ‘Love and Other Poisons’ (Wildfire) is due out July 2025 She is the recipient of three Creative Scotland awards, a Society of Authors grant, and was Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2014. She has also been a judge for several literary awards, and chairs regularly at book festivals. Prior to working as an editorial consultant, Lesley worked for many years as a literary critic, reviewing regularly for The Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Herald, the Scotsman, The Times Literary Supplement, and others. You can find her on Twitter @LesleyMcDowell1, or on Instagram at lesleywrites.
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Mark Leggatt

Mark is a manuscript assessor, editor and author who’s twice topped Blackwell’s bestseller list. He’s the author of three books – Names of the Dead, The London Cage, and The Silk Road – and an Associate Editor for Fledgling Press. As an author, he is represented by literary agent Jon Wood at RCW. Mark has produced detailed editorial reports, manuscript assessments and submission reviews for clients in the UK, EU and North America. He also provides expert advice on submission packs, and how to grab the reader from the first page of your novel. He began his writing career taking advice and receiving manuscript assessments by professionals on his own debut novel, so he knows what it takes to become published and secure an agent.
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Jenny Knight

Jenny Knight is a prize-winning author of short story and memoir, and a contributor to Kit de Waal’s celebrated Common People anthology (Unbound, May 2019). Her latest book will published later this year as one of the three lead titles of a brand-new imprint from HarperCollins – Akan Books. An experienced editor, mentor, copy-writer, copy-editor and proofreader, she’s enjoyed 25 years’ successful freelancing for clients and publishers including Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Routledge, and her writing on writing and the publishing world has appeared in Book Machine, National Writers’ Centre and Restless. Jenny has won or been shortlisted in competitions including Bridport, Fish, Arvon, ACE/Escalator, Yeovil, Riptide and SWWJ. She is an Associate Artist with the National Writing Centre, has a degree in English Literature and Drama, and studied Creative Writing at UEA. Instagram @jennyaknight   Bluesky @jennyknight   X @knightjennyk
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Sam Jordison

Sam Jordison is an author and co-director at Galley Beggar Press, the award-winning indie press. He has extensive editorial experience and knowledge of the book world – and has also been on the other side of the fence, having written several best-selling works of non-fiction, including the notorious Crap Towns series (Boxtree, Pan Macmillan), the best-selling I Spy for adults series, a book about Literary London (co-authored with Eloise Millar), political books like Enemies Of The People and The 10 Worst Of Everything. As a journalist, he mainly writes for The Guardian, and mainly about books. He runs the Not The Booker Prize, and the Guardian’s online book club, The Reading Group. He has also taught about publishing on several Creative Writing university courses, as well as teaching a course on publishing at Greenwich University and journalism at UEA. Find Sam on Twitter here: @samjordison
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Becky Hunter

Becky has over ten years’ experience in the publishing industry. She started her career grading and passing the more promising submissions through to a literary agent. Since then, she’s worked in both and editorial and PR capacity. On the PR side, she worked at two major publishers – Transworld (part of Penguin Random House) and Headline (part of Hachette). She worked with a variety of fiction and non-fiction authors, across a variety of genres. She helped launch the career of debut authors such as Shari Lapena and Karen Hamilton, as well as working with brand women’s fiction and crime/thriller authors. She attended in-house focus and acquisitions meetings, so has a strong idea of what publishers are looking for on the industry side of things.   Over the last two years, she’s been working on a freelance basis, in both an editorial and PR capacity. On the PR side of things, she works independently with authors, as well as for agencies such as Midas PR, working mainly with fiction authors. Editorially, she works with aspiring and self-published authors, as well as on a project-by-project basis with traditional publishers, such as Bloomsbury.   She prides herself on giving thorough, in-depth reports, and loves to see the improvements an author makes with editorial feedback. She is also an author in her own right – her debut novel ONE MOMENT sold in multiple global territories and was published in the UK in 2023 and the US in 2024, where it was pre-empted as part of a two-book deal for six figures. Her second novel MEET ME WHEN MY HEART STOPS was published in 2024. She is represented by Sarah Hornsley at PFD.   Find Becky on Twitter here: @Bookish_Becky
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Caroline Hulse

Caroline Hulse is an author, with four books published in fourteen languages and optioned for television. She writes book club fiction with offbeat humour. Her work has been published to significant critical acclaim and press reviews. The Adults (2018), Like A House On Fire (2020), All The Fun Of The Fair (2021), and Reasonable People (2023) are all published by The Orion Publishing Group (an imprint of Hachette UK). Caroline has a degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield and has extensive experience of coaching and mentoring. She loves helping other authors get the best out of their writing and has been an editor with Jericho Writers for many years. Find Caroline on Twitter here: @CarolineHulse1
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Julie Hoyle

Julie Hoyle is an editor with a broad range of copy-editing and proofreading experience. Julie edits fiction in a variety of genres from crime to romance, from fantasy to comedy, short stories, poetry collections and children’s books. She has worked on non-fiction texts and case studies in the areas of psychology, self-help and autobiographies. Julie has also worked on educational publications such as a new reading scheme, KS1, 2 and 3 maths workbooks, student planners and teaching posters. Julie has written numerous book blurbs which have been complimented by the authors. She is a very conscientious worker and has a great eye for detail. Prior to becoming an editor, Julie worked for 34 years as a teacher, where she enhanced her editing skills while assisting students.
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Rebecca Horsfall

Rebecca has been an editor and teacher of fiction-writing for almost twenty years, working with upwards of 200 authors in a broad range of genres. She is the author of the bestselling epic character-driven novel, Dancing on Thorns, which was published by Random House in the UK and USA to wide critical acclaim in 2005. Before that, she was a script supervisor and editor in the West End theatre for many years. In addition to her own writing and editing, Rebecca has given lectures and masterclasses in fiction writing for a number of colleges and organisations and is a regular teacher at Jericho Writers’ Festival of Writing, running courses and workshops in topics that include character creation, plotting, problem solving, and literary style. Many of Rebecca’s editing clients over the years have gone on to sign with agents and achieve publication. She is happy to work long term with authors on multiple manuscripts. Find Rebecca on Twitter here: @HorsfallAuthor
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Charlotte Hayes-Clemens

Charlotte is an editorial professional with over five years’ experience in the publishing industry, three of which were spent in the Fiction Editorial team at HarperCollins. Having specialised in creative writing as part of Charlotte’s English Literature degree, she went on to edit for the fiction and non-fiction creative writing journal Route 57, where she developed her love of collaborating with writers. At HarperCollins, she worked with the J. R. R. Tolkien and Agatha Christie estates, on women’s fiction and romance titles such as Debbie Johnson’s Summer at the Comfort Food Café, and on unique non-fiction publications, including the Fantastic Beasts movie tie-ins. As a freelance editor, she has worked one-on-one with every type of writer, from first-time to published authors, and her ability to coach clients through the writing and editing process with clear, constructive feedback has led to several successful publications and a five-star Reedsy review rating.
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Rosie Fiore

Rosie Fiore is an author and has worked as a mentor and editor in theatre, television, magazines, advertising, comedy and the corporate market for more than 30 years. She is a tutor on our bestselling online Ultimate Novel Writing Course. Rosie has had eight novels published. She is published by Struik, Quercus and Allen & Unwin under her own name. This Year’s Black and Babies in Waiting were both longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Award. Rosie is also published by Orion as Cass Hunter. The After Wife was translated into nine languages and optioned for a film in China. Rosie has an MA in Creative Writing and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is a teacher of creative writing, effective business writing and English. She has also studied playwriting with the National Theatre. Her most recent dramatic project was a stage adaptation of Dracula. Find Rosie on Twitter here: @rosiefiore
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