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2020 has been… pretty weird so far. But thank goodness, there are still some things you can rely on: writers will write, readers will read, and the wheels of the annual Times/Chicken House Competition will keep on turning.

Sure, we’re running a little late (thank you, public health crisis) but better late than never – and we are very proud to announce this year’s absolutely stonking long list!

Our 18 longlisted manuscripts are an even split between middle-grade and teen/YA. We’re incredibly proud of this diverse bunch of novels whose settings include India past and present, Egypt, London, 1990s Russia, a dystopic near-future, a clockwork shop, a magical island, a time loop, and a haunted house.

These stories are peopled with characters as marvellous as they are relatable – a lion highwayman, a pirate captain, a carer robot, a would-be alchemist, a maid-turned-master-criminal, an amateur sleuth, a reluctant agony aunt, a YouTube star, and a spider sidekick. And that’s to name but a few! So, without further ado, here is the 2020 longlist:

Adjay and the Mumbai Rail Times by Varsha Shah
Clockwork Magpies by Emma Whitehall
Dandy Paws the Highway Lion by Stephanie Sorrell
Don’t Ask Me by Catherine Mallette
Eye Spye by Sophie Stewart
Kali’s Kismet by Dev Kothari
The Boy and the Wolf by Tom Mann
The Elephant Heist by Rucha Dixit
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Cook
The Girl Who Cared by Caitlin Sanderson
The Hangman’s Daughter by Kathryn Nelson
The Networked Wonderland of Us by Sarah Gibson Yates
The Other Ones by Fran Hart
The Precarious Potions of Kitta Quint by Mandy Rabin
The Rise and Fall of Priya and Paul by Beatrice Anobah
The Way to Zaubery by Katie Allen
Things I Learned While I Was Dead by Kathryn Clark
Waiting in the Wings by Harriet Parsons

Huge congratulations to our talented longlisted authors. We hope to announce the shortlist by the end of the month, so watch this space – and keep an eye on our social media accounts – for more news.

About The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition

We no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts, but we do offer unpublished and unagented writers of children’s fiction the chance to submit their work to the annual Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. We're looking for original ideas, a fresh voice, a diverse range of entries and stories that children will love! We’d particularly like to encourage entry from writers from underrepresented backgrounds.

First prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000, plus an offer of representation by this year’s agent judge, Lydia Silver of Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency.

The second prize, the Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award, is a publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 plus an offer of representation by Lydia Silver. The prize will be awarded to a manuscript that shows great potential for film and TV development.

To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. By full-length we suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words.

• About The Times/Chicken House Competition
• Barry’s Tips
• Competition FAQs
• Competition Terms & Conditions

Drumroll please! Over the last few weeks, we've had the very difficult task of whittling our fantastic longlist of 18 down to a shortlist of just 5. With such a stellar longlist, this was no mean feat - all the longlisted submissions were absolutely brilliant stories, full of all the originality, excellent writing and riveting plots that we're on the lookout for from the hundreds of submissions we receive. Such was the quality of this year's longlist, that we couldn't decide on just 5 - so without further ado, here's the shortlist of 6!

Adam's Amazing Apothecary by Wai Lan Mo

Dogs of Legacy by M.P. Sturrock

Keeper of the Crown by Mary Hopewell

King of the Mountains by Steve Lee

The Gallows Dance by Anna Day

The Secret Cooking Club for Girls by Laurel Remington

We've got an absolutely fantastic mix of genres and age ranges on the shortlist - respectively, a magical, hilarious tale of a junior Dr. Dolittle and his journey to overcome fear; a heart-wrenching canine adventure with a unique narrative voice; a high-concept fantasy set in a world ruled by reincarnation; an electrifying cycling story packed with adrenaline; a gripping reimagining of society's obsession with perfection, based around genetic modification; and a delicious cake-fuelled drama bursting with flavour.

Congratulations to all of our shortlisted authors!

We're very excited to announce our longlist for the 2015 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition! We had a huge amount of entries which were all read by our team of experienced readers, who with Barry Cunningham and the Chicken House team chose the very best submissions for our longlist.

So, without further ado - here they are!

ADAM'S AMAZING APOTHECARY by Wai Lan Mo

ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED by Anna Fransizka

DOGS OF LEGACY by M.P. Sturrock

DUNCAN VS. THE GOOGLEYS by Kate Milner

HIDDEN IN THE TRUNK OF STARS by Susie Dinneen

HOLLOW BONES by Anneka Freeman

KEEPER OF THE CROWN by Mary Hopewell

KING OF THE MOUNTAINS by Steve Lee

MOMO AND THE STAR PLAYER by Rebecca Purton

ONE MORE WAVE by L.L. Stewart

REIVERS by Claire Watts

RISE & SHINE by Emma Lee-Potter

SANITATUM by Cassie Powney

SAVING SAXON by Martha Lane

THE DOLL'S HOUSE by Eve Lyte

THE GALLOWS DANCE by Anna Day

THE SECRET COOKING CLUB FOR GIRLS by Laurel Remington

THE START OF HOPE by Debbie Nuttall

Congratulations to all on the longlist, and thank you to all the fantastic authors who entered this year's competition. As always, the standard was incredibly high!

Keep an eye on our Twitter page for info on the shortlist, announcing early February.