Comedy Women in Print Prize 2020 shortlist revealed

The Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP) has revealed its shortlist for its 2020 awards.

Candice Carty William’s Queenie and Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare are two of the seven novels on this year’s shortlist for the only literary prize in the UK and Ireland to shine a light on funny women.

Other shortlisted authors include: Michelle Gallen, Angela Makholwa, Nina Stibbe, Abbi Waxman and Jeanette Winterson CBE.

Marian Keyes, prolific author and Chair of Judges for the CWIP Published Novels Prize, says: “I am absolutely delighted with our list. The range is glorious – everything from light-hearted commercial fiction to literary fiction – from established names to new talent – and it’s a demonstration of all the different ways in which women can be funny in print. It was a pleasure and very exciting to read all the submissions, and these are shortlists we are very proud of.”

Along with Marian Keyes, the panel of judges for this year’s prize include Lolly Adefope, Emma Kennedy, Pauline McLynn, Joanna Scanlan and Laura Steven.

The winner of the published prize will receive a £3,000 reward. The prize also has two other categories: published humorous graphic novels and unpublished comic novels.

The shortlist for the published humorous graphic novels include authors Kate Charlesworth, Mei Lian Hoe, Emily McGovern, Danny Noble, Posy Simmonds, Rachael Smith.

Authors shortlisted in the unpublished humorous novels categories include Zahra Barri, Faye Brann, Annette Gordon, Janey Preger, Julia Walter and Kathleen Whyman. The winner of this category will receive a publishing contract and a £5,000 advance from HarperFiction. The runner-up will receive £2,000 from the University of Hertfordshire and mentoring from the MA course in creative writing.

While the winner for all three prizes was set to be announced in July, due to the global pandemic this has been pushed back to Monday September 14 at the Groucho Club in London.