Huge CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who entered the Writing Magazine 2019 Picture Book Prize!
It takes a lot of determination to complete a book, and it takes a lot of guts to enter it into a competition. The longlisting was particularly tricky this year as the standard of entries was so high. There were 445 entries and we had to get down to a longlist of 25! Not an easy task.
If your name doesn’t appear here, please do NOT be discouraged, hard as that may be. This was a tough competition to judge. Some inclusions were down to personal preference. Others we passed by the breadth of a whisker. But keep writing, keep trying, keep going, because next time, your story might just have that whisker! There will be people longlisted here who weren’t longlisted last year. And if you keep dedicating time and energy to improving your craft, there is no reason why your story might not be listed in the future. I hope this encourages you!
But decisions must be made and lists must be drawn. So without further ado, a great big CONGRATULATIONS to this year’s longlisters:
Rachel Backland Bunnies, Bunnies, Everywhere
Natasha Beloff The Animals That Attenborough Forgot
Liz Bickerstaff Coco The Naughty Parrot
Sara Burnard Aliens Everywhere
Matt Byrne Why The Sky Is Blue
Maria Christou Cheekimeleon
Emily-Jane Clark Maddie-May and the Quest for Sleep
Nicole Curin MC Rhino
Tracy Curran The Teapot Genie
Sarah Dawson Rogg The Wannabe Dog
Phil Dillon A Bundle of Fluff Isn’t Nearly Enough
Peter Frederick My Sheep Are Asleep
Fiona Harding Badger on the Beach
Zandra Johnson Bear in Heels
Liz Kashyap When I Can Talk
Lorna Lee Bella’s Bicycle
Stacey Miller Punkerella
Alison Padley-Woods More Cheese Please!
Simon Perkin If It Isn’t Paloma
Lauren Pippa The Ketchup King
Karoline Stanton Meg’s Magic Tail
Sally Tottle I’d Love To Know
Kael Tudor One Goose, Two Moose
David Wadsworth A Is For Octopus
Kathryn Williams From Little Acorns
Congratulations, everyone! I’ll be contacting you soon with some feedback on your stories. Please be patient, as it may take a little while!
We are now working on the shortlist and hope to announce this before Christmas. Watch this space!