NOTE VENUE: ST JOHN'S CHURCH, FARSLEY. 

As part of Farsley Lit Fest we present nine of the most exciting debut authors of this year and they share with us their paths to publication.

Meet the Class of 2024 with Jennie Godfrey, Flora Carr, Sarah Marsh, Amy Twigg, Emily Howes, LJ Shepherd, Sarah Brooks, Ania Card and Jessica Bull.

Jennie Godfrey was raised in West Yorkshire and her debut novel, The List of Suspicious Things, is inspired by her childhood there in the 1970s. Jennie is from a mill-working family, but as the first of the generation born after the mills closed, she went to university and built a career in the corporate world. In 2020 she left and began to write. She is now a writer and part-time Waterstones bookseller and lives in the Somerset countryside.

Flora Carr was named one of 40 London Library Emerging Writers 2020/2021. She won the Vogue Talent Contest and was Highly Commended for the 2020 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize. She was also shortlisted for the 2018 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. Her work has appeared in TIME Magazine, British ELLE, and The Observer New Review. Flora grew up in Yorkshire and currently lives in London. The Tower is her first novel, a fiery feminist retelling of Mary, Queen of Scot’s darkest hour.

Sarah Marsh was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish prize in 2019 and selected for the London Library Emerging Writers programme in 2020. A Sign of Her Own is a debut novel by a deaf author inspired by her experiences of growing up deaf and her family’s history of deafness. It offers a fascinating window onto a hidden moment in history, and a portrait of a young deaf woman’s journey to find her place in the world, and her own authentic voice.

Amy Twigg was born and raised in Kent. After studying Creative Writing at university, she moved to Surrey where she works as a freelance copywriter. Her debut novel, Spoilt Creatures, won the BPA Pitch Prize and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition and Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award.

Emily Howes has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director in stage, television and radio. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Bath Short Story Award, the New Scottish Writing Award and she won the Mslexia Novel Award 2021. In addition to writing fiction, Emily has a Masters in Existential Psychotherapy and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. The Painter’s Daughters is her first novel.

LJ Shepherd has been a practicing barrister since 2017 and has prosecuted and defended in many jury trials in the Crown Court. She is now a Human Rights barrister instructed in high-profile public inquires. The Trials of Lila Dalton is her first novel.

Sarah Brooks won the Lucy Cavendish Prize in 2019. She works in East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds where she also helps run the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. She has a PhD on monsters in classical Chinese ghost stories. She is also co-editor of Samovar, a bilingual online magazine for translated speculative fiction.

Ania Card lives in Brighton but was born and grew up in Poland. With nearly half of her life spent in the UK, she often finds herself between Poland and the UK, linguistically and culturally. She started writing in English when she arrived at Cardiff University, getting involved with the student cultural magazine ‘Quench’, where she became part of the editing team and headed the LGBTQ+ section. With a background in film theory and production, she has published film and music essays and reviews on independent platforms. “Above Us the Sea” is her first novel.

Jessica Bull is addicted to stories. She studied English literature at Bristol University, and Information Science at City University, London. She worked as a librarian (under the false impression that she could sit and read all day) before becoming a communications consultant.