2022 Writing Award Finalists

Patricia Donovan is the author of four novels, including The Remarkable Miss Digby which in 2022 was shortlisted for a NZ Booklovers Award. Her latest book, Rita Vegas, continues her notable exploration of genre. Donovan says that while her novels span numerous genres, they share a common theme: a

In my life I've worked in factories, behind several bars and once ran a livery stable. I spent fifteen years as a software engineer in England, Ireland and Scotland – sorry Wales. In 2007 we moved to France. Now I make jam and sell it on the local markets, which is far less lucrative, but far more

Claudia Bretag is an editor, teacher, retail assistant and aspiring author from Sydney, Australia. She is an active member of both Writing NSW and IPEd. Claudia is at her best in a cafe with a cup of coffee while her fingers tinker away at a keyboard to uncover a new chapter each day.

Writer of psychological thrillers with a feminist focus. Currently studying at Cambridge University, UK. I like to write dark stories but the good will often prevail. I live in West Sussex in the UK with my husband; I have three kids too and some cats. I'm an English teacher during the day when I'm

When Heidi was an English major in college, she had aspirations of writing a novel. Instead, she was pulled in another direction and pursued a successful career in marketing, specializing in fresh produce. She hung her own shingle and became a marketing consultant in 2000, and in 2012 she formed her

Anders Hallengren, author and scholar, born in Stockholm in 1950. Received his doctorate for a dissertation on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s philosophy of law, published in 1994 (The Code of Concord). 188 research works listed in the university database DiVA 1974-2022. The author of

LAURA XIAO DONG LIU is a student of life who is aligned with nothing else but life itself. She writes from her life experiences and those of her clients to impart a simple message: Each moment of life offers each human being an opportunity for a direct awakening. Peace, love and joy do not lie in

I'm a proud native of Suffolk, but now live in Wiltshire, divorced with two adult sons, in a small house with a garden I've made from scratch, and two loving, beautiful, mischievous and entertaining Burmese kittens. I've been writing since I was a small child, and began my first published book at

A Welsh poet and author from the Rhondda Valleys, Philip M John graduated from the University of South Wales in 2014 before working and living across the border in Bristol. He has since returned to Wales and now resides in Monmouthshire. Philip has published four volumes of poetry – Home Truths

My work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Writer’s Digest and Family Circle. A Pushcart Prize nominee, I won the Grand Prize in the annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and received a Finalist Award in Prose from the Illinois Arts Council. I graduated with a

Leslie Liautaud is an American playwright and novelist. Her award winning immersive play, SOUTHERN GOTHIC (2018), premiered at Windy City Playhouse in Chicago, IL. Her plays MIDNIGHT WALTZES (2006), HE IS US (2008), THE WRECK (2009), THE MANSION (2012) and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: THE MILLENNIAL

My former career was a professional actor, working in film, TV, stage and radio. I'm now a semi-retired, award-winning writer in live events and film for corporate and government clients, specialising in communication strategy, creative concepts, copywriting and scriptwriting. I have written four

I am a 23 year old English writer living in Staffordshire, UK. I enjoy spending time with my horses and both reading and writing fantasy. After becoming lost in the worlds of my favourite books such as Sarah J Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Jennifer L Armentrout's From Blood And Ash, i

When Emerson isn't writing historical fiction, she's teaching English literature and creative writing to fabulous students who motivate her to bring her best to every class. Her current story won the ACFW's First Impressions contest and is a finalist in both the Genesis contest and the Page Turner

My first published book was about veterinary dermatology, a rather dry text with some disgusting photographs. However, it made my name as a veterinary nurse and helped a few people understand the topic. In 2021, Veneficia Publications published my novel, The Listener, a historical romance with some

Tim Pareti was born and raised on the north side of Chicago. His Italian-American family started Ernie's Bleachers, which eventually became the iconic Murphy's Bleachers. An award-winning journalist, he worked as a reporter and editor for Scripps newspapers and was a freelance writer for the Chicago

My short fiction has appeared in The Conglomerate, Open: The Journal of Arts and Letters, RiverSedge, a publication of University of Texas, and Gris-gris Online Journal of Literature, Culture and the Arts. I have received several Effie Lee Morris awards from the WNBA-SF Chapter. I am an alumna of

Canadian-born, but always a wanderer. I have lived in France, Latin America, the Caribbean and even a sailboat for a year but now London is home. I spend my time writing short stories, jotting down notes for my next novel which takes place in South America and using my skills as a sommelier to

So last year, I was driving up the A3 to the office and it occurred to me that the world may be missing a story about cats and politics (two of my loves in life). I got excited about it, got writing every day (around my day job and the arrival of our new baby boy), found an amazing editor to work

I write in a variety of genres: Women’s Fiction, Mysteries/Thrillers, Romantic Suspense, and Historical Time Travel. As a native of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburbs, all my books occur in Pennsylvania. Regardless of the genre, suspenseful and mysterious elements are captured in every book. All

David W. Berner is a best-selling and award-winning author of several books of memoir and fiction. He has been honored as the Writer-in-Residence at the Jack Kerouac Project in Orlando and at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home in Oak Park, Illinois. His books have been recognized by the Society of

My writing career started in 1981 when I became the editorial assistant for Good Living magazine and worked as a freelance contributor to Honey. By 1985 I was launch editor of LOOKS and in 1987 I became a freelance editor – focussing on creating new titles and resuscitating sick ones. I also worked

Hi Everyone, I'm an Edinburgh based writer. My first novel Love Byte was published by Joffe Books and was shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy of the Year by the Romantic Novelist Association (RNA) Subsequently I have written two further novels to date, Squeezed and The Second Life of Nathan Jones

Kim Gottlieb-Walker is an American photographer and writer living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 50 years, she has built a distinctive portfolio that includes some of the most notable musicians and personalities of the '60s and '70s. A graduate of UCLA with honors in Motion Picture

Hi, I'm Morag Higgins. I am passionate about writing and have in the past written articles for equestrian magazines (I am a horse trainer to trade). I have published several equestrian training books but my real passion is for fiction. My first published book was Bruja. The true story of my first

SAPPHIRE RAIN, my memoir illustrates how to heal heartache and pain through seven primary phases like trusting intuition and speaking truth. In this inspirational narrative, I revisit my personal experiences of abuse, teenage pregnancy, divorce, and clairvoyance. My story lays the groundwork for

Hi! I'm Amanda and I live in London, UK. :) Having spent ten years working as a Barrister in Criminal Law, I live and love all things crime! Hence all my books have a strong crime element, based on murder cases I prosecuted and are embedded with twists and conspiracies. As I have teenage children

Hi! I'm Amanda and I live in London, UK. :) Having spent ten years working as a Barrister in Criminal Law, I live and love all things crime! Hence all my books have a strong crime element, based on murder cases I prosecuted and are embedded with twists and conspiracies. As I have teenage children

I have wanted to be a writer from an early age. That aim was partly interrupted by a career in the marine insurance and shipping sectors of the City of London. During that time, I wrote articles in the trade press, and over a period of nine years, also compiled and self-published a quarterly

I'm a Canadian-Dutch writer temporarily living in Canada as a caregiver for my elderly father, but my permanent home is in Rotterdam with my Dutch musician husband whom I met in a music forum for fans of the Hollies. My background is in advertising copywriting and, along with my English and History

I was born in Berlin, and grew up in the Army, moving from place to place. All of the work I've done in my adult life has been in the worlds of media/entertainment/storytelling. I started in the office of the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre in Islington in the early 1980s’, leaving to move to a small

I was born in Bristol, grew up in South Gloucestershire, and live in London. I studied at the University of Warwick and UCL and worked as a librarian for several years. I'm currently a student on the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course.

Professional violinist Lisa Rollin found herself pregnant whilst on tour with "Simply Red" … Surviving a tour schedule whilst pregnant, she decided to document her gig adventures pre and post baby; hence her “Diary of a Rock Chick Mum.”

Deborah writes long and short fiction. Her flash fictions and short stories have been published in print and online by small presses, and two stories have won prizes. Her two novellas-in-flash have been longlisted in two different novella competitions, and her novels have reached longlists and

My name is Jayden Cox, and I'd like to think that I have an infinite imagination. My only goal is to share it with the world. I developed a love for writing during a very hard battle with anxiety that I still fight to this day. I have found a way to channel my imagination into positive energy

I am a creative soul, the first in my family to get to go to University where I studied film. Unfortunately, I was never able to break into the entertainment industry, but still have a passion for storytelling and look for opportunities to express creativity. I was in the short list last for last

I am an attorney with a practice in New York. I've published three books through John Hunt Publishing ("JHP,") as well as 13 articles in local and national publications on topics including watchmaking, wheelchair sports, baseball, food & drug law and politics. My first novel, Visions Through a Glass

Diane Wald’s novel Gillyflower was published in April 2019 by She Writes Press and won first place in the novella category from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, first place in the novella category from American Book Fest, first place in Fiction: Novella from International Book Awards, and a

Ann Evans is a multi-published, award-winning writer with almost 40 books to her name. She writes for all ages, from children’s picture books to adventure books for KS1 and KS2, Young Adult books, books for reluctant readers, plus crime thrillers and romance (Romance pen name: Ann Carroll). She also

Sandy Kundra Verma has an Mst in Creative Writing from Cambridge University. Her first novel ‘Burnt Toast’ was published in 2012 and her short fiction has been published in The Barren Magazine, The Bangalore Review and has won The Michael Holroyd Prize. This manuscript has won the Darling Axe First

I am Rebecca Whitehall, I worked as an early childhood teacher in Las Vegas, USA, for 25 years. During those years it was my delight to work primarily with second language children. Noptanot, a Thai student, especially brought back special childhood memories of my family living in Thailand. The

My writing has been seen on stage and screen and I've survived tv script departments as storyliner and script editor. My Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing led to two novels on Amazon, one of which was Commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript 2014. I

After gaining a degree in Anthropology, Sophie went into television production directing her first documentary for Channel 4 when driving from London to Johannesburg. Having produced an INSET series for BBC Education, she set up wildlife films in Botswana and a BLUE PETER exploration of South Africa

Erin L. Swann is an avid home cook who has taught visual art for eighteen years in Central Maryland. She recently became an online writing instructor for Authors Publish and has given several free online lectures through them as well. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and publications

Edward Pontacoloni is an New York Attorney Emeritus Pro Bono Publico and an outdoorsman residing in New York's Adirondack Park with his wife of 43 years, Janice. His bragabout children, Edward, Nicholas, Denise and Michael are grown. He is the author of the fairy tale, The Adventures of Firstyr the

Stevie Turner is a British author of Romantic Suspense, Humour, Paranormal, and Women’s Fiction (family dramas). She won an inter-schools' essay competition at the age of 11, and this gave her encouragement to write further. She has now written 15 novels, 2 screenplays, 6 novellas, 1 memoir, and 18

Page Turner 2022 Genre Award winner for her recently published debut novel, I, SAID THE FLY (award under its working title: The Assassin Who Loved Me), Jay Jones is currently working on book 2 in The D.I. and The Assassin series. Originally from India, Jay and her husband now live in Worcestershire

Page Turner 2022 Genre Award winner for her recently published debut novel, I, SAID THE FLY (award under its working title: The Assassin Who Loved Me), Jay Jones is currently working on book 2 in The D.I. and The Assassin series. Originally from India, Jay and her husband now live in Worcestershire

Michael is in his seventies and had retired from a business career to embark on what he loves; to read and write. He is a prolific reader of all genres, but has a significant interest in history and historical fiction. He was born and raised on the East Rand of South Africa, and now lives on the

Author of A Big Blue Boat and A Day on the Brine, Susea loves playing with words, sharing her stories and sailing. Susea’s achievements include being Picture Book Genre Award winner, Page Turner Awards (2022): A Day on the Brine; Purple Dragonfly Award winner (2023): A Big Blue Boat, Longlisted