Farnham’s First Five Pages – Writing Competition
Deadline: Wednesday 31 December 2025
Farnham Literary Festival presents Farnham’s First Five Pages writing competition.
Entrants to submit the first 5 pages of their novel and a 250-word synopsis, your work does not have to be finished.
There is no set theme or style of writing however your entry should be an unpublished, original story.
The judges will agree on a longlist of 20 submissions and 10 will be shortlisted.
Awards:
First place – THE PARIS PRIZE FOR FICTION – £1000 and a critique
Second place – £300
Third place – £200
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.’
Eligibility:
- 18 and over
- You must be an unpublished writer (self-published writers are eligible, but the work itself must not be published anywhere)
- Your work must be your own, original writing
- Only fiction work will be accepted
- Your work does not have to be finished; we only need the first 5 pages!
Rules:
IMPORTANT: All entries are judged anonymously. Please do not include your name or any other personal information on the document.
Length:
- The first 5 pages (maximum) of your work
- The first page of the submission should include a 250-word synopsis. The synopsis is in addition to the 5 pages, not included in the page count.
Format:
- Save as a PDF file or Word Document with the novel title as the file name
- Please do not include your name in with the file name
- First page to include the synopsis
- Numbered pages
- Include the title of the work on every page (in the header)
- Entries must be typed in 12 pt with black font, double spaced and in Times New Roman font
- Entries must be in English
Fees:
There is a £10 fee per submission. There is no limit to the number of submissions per person
Results:
Longlist announcement – Monday 16 February 2026
Shortlist announcement – Friday 27 February 2026
Results – Sunday 15 March 2026
An award ceremony will be held on Sunday 15 March 2025 at Farnham Town Hall. Further details to follow.
* Short-listed entrants may potentially be interviewed before the judges make their final decision.
All shortlisted works will have the opportunity to be published on the Farnham Literary Festival website.
If you have a query, please contact litfestcomp@gmail.com
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.
Louise Morrish
Louise Morrish is passionate about women’s history. She loves nothing more than discovering the stories of ordinary women in the past who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten.
Her dream of seeing her own book on a shelf came true when her debut novel, Operation Moonlight, won Penguin Random House First Novel competition in 2019. Operation Moonlight was published in 2022, and her second book with Penguin, Women of War, was published in March 2025. Louise is now represented by literary agent LBA Books.
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’.
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.
