How To Get Published - Autumn

Jonathan Myerson is the author of two novels, many TV episodes including EastEnders, The Bill and Holby City, over 50 radio plays and series, including Number 10 which won the Writers’ Guild Best Radio Drama 2010;, screenplays and animations including The Canterbury Tales which won a BAFTA and an Oscar Nomination in 1999. His latest work is the 16-part podcast Nuremberg for BBC Sounds. For ten years, he ran the MA in Novel Writing at City University London; he now tutors for www.finishyournovel.org.

Monique Roffey was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. She is the author of six novels and a memoir. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year and the Costa Novel Award 2020. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021, the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 and the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2021. Her highly acclaimed previous books are Sun Dog, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2010), Archipelago (winner of the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature 2013), House of Ashes (shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2014), The Tryst and With the Kisses of His Mouth. Monique Roffey is a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and a tutor for the National Writers Centre.

Louisa Minghella worked in development, production, theatre, and representation before joining Blake Friedmann to build her list. As well as her clients, Louisa represent media rights on behalf of book agents. Previous to working at Blake Friedmann, Louisa wrote and directed several plays and took a production role on various projects including WE WANTS IT starring Andy Serkis, which won a Creative Circle Award and is the most watched political film in British history. Louisa is interested in taking on writers with a fresh look at modern life and wants to be working with the pioneers of representation in film, TV and theatre. She is keen to build a list that will be the first place to look for talented and unique writers from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Louise loves high concept drama and comic noir and is also looking for juicy and original thrillers, concepts that come from a primal, personal space, and wacky or surreal comedy. She is a sucker for family drama, complicated characters, and ambition.

Jacques Testard is the co-founder of The White Review and founder and publisher of Fitzcarraldo Editions. 

Kit Caless is a writer and editor based in Hackney Downs. He regularly contributes to magazines such Vice and The Quietus and is the author of the valuable thesis, Spoon's Carpets: An Appreciation (Vintage/Square Peg 2016).

Some of his favourite writers are ZZ Packer, JG Ballard, Nicola Barker and Michael Chabon.

Juliet Pickering worked for Waterstones as a bookseller and fiction buyer, before joining the agency A P Watt in 2003. She  moved to Blake Friedmann in 2013, becoming Vice Head of the Book Department in 2017 and a Director in 2020, and her authors have been shortlisted for Booker, Costa, and Guardian First Book Awards, won the Whitbread and Green Carnation Prizes, and the Prix Femina Etranger. She regularly visits literary festivals, courses and events, and enjoys giving talks and holding workshops for writers. She has been a judge for the Bristol Short Story Prize and for the Manchester Fiction Prize, and is on the board of the Working Class Writers’ Festival. 

She is proud to represent a list of intriguing, conversation-starting, diverse writers, across both fiction and non-fiction. Many of Juliet's authors write contemporary stories, often led by themes of identity, coming-of-age, class, gender and sexuality, to name a few; for her, vital qualities to a good story include emotional depth, authenticity, an engaging voice and irrepressible energy. She wants to be surprised, and to have everyday experiences and relationships told with nuance and colour.