For the past four years, I have been a judge for the McKitterick Prize, one of various awards administered by the Society of Authors (the UK trade union for writers). Since 1990, this Prize has been given to a debut novelist aged 40+. It’s unique in that it considers unpublished manuscripts as well as published novels – Tom McKitterick, who endowed the prize, was a former Political Quarterly editor and left an unpublished novel at his death. The overlapping Paul Torday Memorial Prize (for debut authors of 60+) closed last year, so this is one of just two prizes I know of for authors OVER a certain age, the other being the RSL Christopher Bland Prize, which is for fiction or nonfiction.
In 2021–24, my role was helping to whittle down the unpublished manuscripts, which then joined the traditionally published novels for judging. For 2025, I’m delighted to announce that I’m one of the judges assessing the published material (this includes self-published books). The opportunity came about by happenstance, really. I realized that I hadn’t heard from the SoA lately and assumed they didn’t need me this year, but e-mailed in case and learned that a judge had just had to bow out, leaving a space for me. It feels like a big step up as judging ‘proper books’ – by which I mean published, and in print format – for a literary prize is a longstanding ambition of mine.
My first shipment arrived on Thursday and I’ve already gotten stuck into my first two reads. I didn’t take a look at the list before the parcel was delivered so I could have the fun of unboxing surprises. Four of the submissions are ones I (secretly) predicted, and I recognized another six titles. The rest are new to me. I likely won’t be able to share more about the process or any of my reading until after the shortlist in May and/or the winner announcement in June at the annual SoA Awards ceremony. My hope is that I will find lots of gems so the task never turns tedious. Longlist choices are due in March, so I’m going to be busy over the next few months! I pulled out a notebook I won in a giveaway on Cathy’s blog to act as a repository for my notes and thoughts. I’m excited to see what themes emerge and encounter some debut novelists the world needs to hear about.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Oh congratuations, Rebecca. This is exciting news, if also perhaps a little daunting?
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Thanks! It’s feeling manageable for now…
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Many congratulations, Rebecca. Delighted to hear your news!
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Thanks for getting me involved with the Prize in the first place, Susan!
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My pleasure!
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Congratulations, although it will no doubt take up quite a bit of your time!
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Thank you. So far it has been slotting easily into my regular life, but in the new year I’ll have to allot more time.
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This is so exciting, Rebecca! Congratulations indeed! Can’t wait to see what you and the other judges turn up.
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Already I can see that this will introduce me to lots of great books I wouldn’t have otherwise heard about or accessed.
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Congratulations!
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Thanks, Carolyn!
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Gosh, congratulations indeed – and I love the word happenstance, thank you for using it!
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Serendipity is my favourite word 🙂
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Alfie looks ready to help 🙂 Such an exciting adventure to be part of a reading panel for a book prize!
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He surely shall, by pinning me to the sofa with my book stack.
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As a past recipient of your choices in The McKitterick Prize, I have to say you have awesome taste in good reading, Rebecca! This prize recognises older writers, who came to be authors later in life.
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Thank you, Jill. So many literary prizes are for bright young things, so it’s encouraging that there are a couple of them out there for late bloomers. Though at 41, I’d bristle at being counted as “older” 😉
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That sounds exciting!
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I have quite a tempting shelf of upcoming reads for it.
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This sounds so exciting, congratulations! Delighted to see the notebook getting a shout out too!
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I’ve taken it along to some literary events, too. It’s the perfect size to fit in a pocket or handbag and has the built-in bookmark and pen 🙂
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Congratulations: that’s very exciting!
And thank goodness you had your reliable Box (and All Things) Inspector onsite to assist!
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He is still a very good inspector, and a master of getting in the way! (You might not know if you’ve not been on Instagram lately that Alfie had a health crisis towards the end of October, but he’s stable now and on home “hospice care.”)
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Congratulations!! How wonderful!
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Thank you!
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Congratulations!
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Thanks 🙂
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Exciting!! Congratulations Rebecca!
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Thank you 😀 I’ve got some great books coming up.
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Congratulations indeed! It’ll be fascinating to hear your thoughts about the process once you’re allowed to tell us. I hope the reading never gets tedious for you.
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Inevitably, some books will engage me more than others. It will be very interesting to compare notes with the other judges.
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Congratulations!
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How wonderful, and how serendipitous that the other judge had to drop out. Not to mention suspicious. 😉 I’m sure somebody has already used that plot device for a murder mystery. I’m sure you’ll be a perfect judge.
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If it’s who I suspect, they are a bit too busy as a published author!
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Ooh, intriguing! Could be anyone. 😂
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[…] Most pinching-myself bookish moment: Getting a chance to judge published debut novels for the McKitterick Prize […]
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[…] prize in a concerted way, partly because I’m too busy with reading debut novels in my role as a McKitterick Prize judge, but there are some books that […]
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