Farnham Literary Festival presents the Farnham’s First Five writing competition.
Submit the first 5,000 words of your adult fiction novel for a chance to win The Paris Prize for Fiction, worth £1,000 and a critique. The competition is open to unpublished writers aged 18 and over, and entries close on Monday 30 November 2026.
Awards
The Paris Prize for Fiction:
The Farnham Literary Festival is immensely grateful for the generosity of B.A. Paris, the New York Times and Sunday Times best-selling author, who has offered this substantial prize. B.A. Paris says, ‘I am very grateful to those who supported me early in my writing career and want to show my gratitude by encouraging new authors. Writing competitions play an important role in building a debut writer’s confidence and I hope that by sponsoring this prize, we will uncover some exciting new talent.’
Rules and Regulations
All entries are judged anonymously. Please do not include your name or any other personal information on the document.
If you have a query, please contact [email protected]
- Open to ages 18 and over
- You must be an unpublished writer (self-published writers are eligible, but the work itself must not be published anywhere)
- The work must be your own, original writing
- The work must be original and not produced or edited by any AI creation tool
- Only adult fiction work will be accepted
- Your work does not have to be finished, we only need the first 5,000 words
Important: all entries are judged anonymously.
Do not include your name or any other personal information in your submission document.
- The first 5,000 words (maximum) of your work
- The first page of the submission should include a 250-word synopsis. The synopsis is in addition to the 5,000 words and is not included in the word count.
- Save as a Word Document with the novel title as the file name
- Do not include your name in with the file name. All entries are judged anonymously. Do not include your name or any other personal information in your submission document
- Entries must be typed in 12 pt with black font, double spaced and in Times New Roman font
- First page to include the synopsis
- Number the pages
- Include the title of the work on every page (in the header)
- Entries must be in English
There is a £11 fee per submission.
There is no limit to the number of submissions per person but submissions must be uploaded separately.
Key dates
Entry deadline: Monday 30 November 2026
Longlist announcement – Friday 12 February 2027
Shortlist announcement –Friday 26 February 2027
Results – Sunday 14 March 2027
An award ceremony will be held on Sunday 14 March 2027 at Farnham Town Hall. Further details to follow.
Meet the Judges
B.A. Paris
B.A.Paris is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of the word-of-mouth hit Behind Closed Doors. Her new novel will be out later this year.
With 7 million editions of her seven novels sold worldwide, her books have been translated into 41 languages. Three of her novels have been optioned for major screen adaptations and a film has been made of her novel The Breakdown.
The Farnham Literary Festival is immensely grateful for the generosity of B.A. Paris who has offered the substantial prize of first place, The Paris Prize for Fiction.
Guy Morpuss
Guy Morpuss practised as a barrister and King’s Counsel in London for thirty years, dealing with cases featuring drug-taking cyclists, dead Formula 1 champions and aspiring cemetery owners. He now writes full-time.
His debut novel, Five Minds, is about five people sharing one body, one of whom is trying to murder the others. His second novel, Black Lake Manor, is a locked room murder mystery set on Vancouver Island, with a killer who can unwind time.
For his third novel, A Trial in Three Acts, he has returned to the law, with a murder trial set in the Old Bailey. It was described by the Times as ‘admirably ingenious’, and by the Financial Times as ‘rather splendid’.
Katie Fulford
Katie spent 25 years at HarperCollins in a variety of roles including Group Rights Director, Managing Director of Collins non-fiction and senior positions in William Collins and 4th Estate, Fiction and Children’s. She was Executive Producer on Channel 4’s 2019 critically acclaimed TV adaptation of the much loved classic The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr which was awarded an international Emmy.
She is now an agent at Bell Lomax Moreton and represents authors across commercial and bookclub fiction, in all genres with the exception of science fiction & fantasy and children’s books.
Louise Morrish
Louise Morrish is an author, bookseller for Goldfinch Books, creative writing tutor with the History Quill, and historical speaker from Hampshire. She writes stories inspired by the lives of real women in the past, who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten.
Her debut novel, Operation Moonlight, won the Penguin Random House First Novel competition and was published in 2022. Her second novel, Women of War, was published by Penguin, Michael Joseph in 2025, and her third novel, The Library of War and Peace, came out in early 2026.
Melanie Whipman
Melanie Whipman is a writer, editor and lecturer. Her work has been broadcast on Radio 4 and published in numerous literary and commercial magazines and anthologies.
She is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Chichester; leads creative writing workshops in Farnham and is commissioning editor for The Story Player.
Her debut short story collection, Llama Sutra, won the Rubery International Book Award (short story category) in 2017 and was a contender for the Edge Hill Prize. She is currently editing her novel, which was written during her MA in Creative Writing, and which was awarded the Kate Betts Prize. She has a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Southampton.
Suzanne Goldring
Suzanne’s eighth novel explores the pivotal role of the Quakers in organising the Kindertransport, which saved the lives of 10,000 children between December 1938 and September 1939. Writing full time since the success of her debut novel, My Name is Eva in 2019, Suzanne is now working on her ninth novel for Bookouture. Her books have been translated into several languages including Russian and German and are particularly successful in the US and Canada.
Farnham’s First Five Pages – Writing Competition FAQs
Only fiction work will be accepted.
No. All submissions are final, and changes cannot be made. You can enter again with an updated version of your work. To withdraw your original entry, please email megan.cross@
To keep the competition fair to all writers, any material over 5 pages will not be taken into consideration.
Your synopsis should include a clear summary of your novels main plot.
We will check the word count of submissions.
No. All entries must be submitted through the online form.
Novels that have been traditionally published are not eligible.
Translation of a writer’s own work into English is allowed. However, translations of someone else’s work is not eligible.
An author’s translation of their own work into English is eligible but someone else’s translation of the work is not.
Yes. We just ask that all authors are named on the form.
Yes. The entry form has a space to enter your pen name but please also submit your real name on the form.
Short-listed entrants will be interviewed in person or via zoom before the judges make their final decision
The work submitted must be original and not produced or edited by Chat GPT or any other AI creation tool