The Virginia Prize for Fiction is open for submissions. Run by Aurora Metro, the Twickenham-based arts organisation, the competition is searching for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English. Finalists will receive editorial guidance and a conditional publishing deal from Aurora Metro Books with an advance and royalty payable for the publishing rights.

The deadline for standard entries is 1st August 2023, and costs £20.

The closing date for late entries is 31st October 3023 and costs £25.

The prize is open to any woman (over 18) around the world, writing in English. Your entry must be a completed, unpublished novels for adults or YA readers, of at least 45,000 words in length.

Longlisted writers will be contacted in January 2024. A special event to announce the finalists will be held in London.

The novel can be of any genre but cannot have been published or self-published before.

This biennial prize was launched in 2009 as a tribute to Virginia Woolf who wrote her first novel, The Voyage Out, while living an Hogarth House on Paradise Road in Richmond, where she and her husband Leonard also founded the Hogarth Press in 1917.

The prize’s founder, publisher Cheryl Robson, hopes that “by naming this prize in Virginia Woolf’s memory we will inspire women to find their voice and contribute to the pantheon of great women writers.”

The prize is open to any woman (over 18) around the world, writing in English. The novel can be of any genre but cannot have been published or self-published before. You must submit your entire completed novel to be eligible. The entry fee is £10 per manuscript.

For more information about the prize and to enter, click here.

Find out more about Virginia Woolf’s time in Richmond.