With just a few days left to submit to the Book Edit Writers’ Prize, we wanted to highlight one of last year’s winners, British-Lebanese writer Emily Abdeni-Holman, to encourage you to submit your work.

Emily’s poetry collection, Body Tectonic, was published by Broken Sleep Books this summer. She has also contributed her poem, Where We Find Ourselves, to the Arachne Press’ Global Majority anthology. 

Emily said, ‘Winning the Book Edit Writers’ Prize was a real affirmation that Tapha (now At the Pine House) was interesting to others and might be able to make it as a book and not just my own project. It was wonderful to meet other writers: we’re still in touch and sharing updates. I feel invested in my cohort as well as trying to take my own work forward, and that was definitely also down to Rebekah and Emily’s encouragement of all of us and enthusiasm about our writing. I think the prize opens something that continues; it isn’t just a one-off event. It’s easy with writing (for me at least) to sit on a project for years on end and not propel it out into the world, and the Book Edit Writers’ Prize has been important in invigorating me to believe in the possible wider resonance of my work. So, I’m very thankful and will definitely be following this year’s Prize.’

We’re super proud of all our longlisted, shortlisted and winning writers and we hope this has inspired you to submit to 2024’s competition to see where it might take you and your writing.