Second Year Student Selected for Penguin Mentorship
Creative Writing student Ben Wilson has been selected as one of ten new writers, as part of WriteNow, a new initiative from Penguin Random House, to receive a year of mentoring at Penguin in bringing the novel to fruition.
Ben, who is now in his second year of studies, submitted to the competition a 1,000 words of his unfinished novel, Dispatch from the City of Orgies—a magical realist memoir about witchcraft, chemsex, queerness and the Stephen Port murders.
From over 2,000 applications, Ben was one of just 150 writers to be invited to a regional insight day and asked to submit a further 5,000 words, and was eventually in the ten selected for mentorship.
Ben explained: "The insight day involved meeting writers and editors from Penguin Random House, and getting one-to-one feedback on my manuscript. Off the back of my 5,000 words I was placed onto the final shortlist and asked to send in the other 35,000 words of my novel.
Last week, Ben said: "I am now waiting to hear if I will be one of the successful final ten to win a year of mentoring from Penguin. I'm thrilled to have got this far, and even if I'm not successful, it's made me even more determined to see this novel in print."
Looks like your determination won the day. Well done, Ben!
You can find out more about Ben and his work on his website or by following him on Twitter (@BenWritesFilth).
by Danielle Barrios-O'Neill