Novel Fair 2025: Runners-Up and Highly Commended

Each September, we have an international call out for manuscripts from unpublished (and unsigned) novelists who are searching for a home for their novels. With a record number of submissions (546!!) to Novel Fair this year, we had the most competitive selection process so far. Our five judges, Declan Burke, Roe McDermott, John Patrick McHugh, Lia Mills and Aiden O’Reilly who selected this year’s twelve winners, also selected 12 runners-up and 12 highly commended.

Runners-up

Pat Boran
Sara Brown-Moore
Sinead Creedon
Catherine Crichton
Carolyn Gutierrez
Nigel Kelly
Fiona McCann
Gary McKeever
Ralph Mills
Anne O’Leary
Dónal O’Sullivan
Judith Pasztor Duffy

Highly-Commended

Kristin Adams
Jaya Agrawal
Brian Belefant
Ken Cockburn
Grainne Daly
Cristina Ferrandez
Miriam Forde
Catherine Higgins-Moore
Mike Murray
Ann Neary
Rachael O’Brien
Eoin O’Donnell

How can I enter Novel Fair 2026?  

Submit up to 10,000 words of your novel and 200 words of your project synopsis.  

• The submission period runs from 1st – 30th September 2025.   

Find out more about the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair here.