House of Wisdom (puzzles from the
Golden era of Islam), by Eiman Munro is a wonderful concept and with a
little more work on the eventual shape of the book could easily have been a
winning contender. We all felt it needed a little more of a narrative shape to
carry it and, perhaps, could even have sacrificed a puzzle or two to make room
for that. We’d love to have known more about the overall length and shape of
the proposed book and to hear more about how the author sees it being presented
in terms of illustration. That said, it really was a very strong concept, which
very nearly carried it through to the final.
Revolting Rats by Susanna
White was another very strong concept indeed. We loved that the proposal is
for a graphic approach, and LOVED the idea of telling the story from the rat’s
POV. That said, we were a little concerned it might tread a little close to
material already covered so well in Horrible Histories, albeit with a
refreshingly different take in the POV. We also wondered if it would be
stronger if this were just one story from history, told from the POV of the
animals involved in it – WW1 trenches from the POV of a carrier pigeon or a war
horse, for example, or some aspects of Ancient Egypt as seen by its sacred
cats?
And that brings us
on to the winner. Well, does it? After much deliberation, we were unable to
split two entries and so first place in this month’s Slushpile Challenge is
shared between – drum roll please.... Tell
Me a Story about Medicine and Rocket
Women.
We all felt that Tell Me a Story about Medicine
by Claire Watts was a very clear and well-crafted proposal. It dealt
with the vagaries and probablies of handling ancient facts very well and was
honestly absolutely fascinating and perfect for any budding medic. It was
meticulously researched and clearly laid out by an author who both knows their
stuff and knows exactly how to convey this information in just the right tone
and with just the right depth. Very excited to hear more about this one and we
have lots of ideas to share with the author too. Excellent stuff!
Rocket Women by Anita Loughrey was that rare thing – an ace title for an
ace subject, presented in a way that’s just, well, ace. We felt that the
author’s biography was spot on for this project and loved that unlike other
books on this subject, this author wanted to present a deeper account of these
inspiring women who got us into space and to the moon and to do their
achievements real justice. We also loved the idea of presenting this in a
graphic package and are very excited to hear more about the author’s vision.
So congratulations
to our two winners and to our two runners-up, but congratulations too to all of
you who perhaps didn’t get a mention this time round. Please don’t be
disheartened and do keep on writing. And lastly, we’d welcome submissions from
any and all of you via The BIA website. Our fiction requirements are well
known, but do feel free to keep coming at us with non-fiction submissions too!”
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