COMPETITION Undiscovered Voices

 

 Undiscovered Voices 2026 will launch this summer – make sure you’re ready to enter. Maggie Womersley, a previous finalist, shares her experience to give you the best chance of winning. 

  

If you’re an un-agented, unpublished writer for kids or young adults, then SCBWI-BI’s biennial Undiscovered Voices competition could be just the boost your writing career is looking for. The next round of the contest launches in a couple of months, but before then, previous UV finalist, Maggie Womersley explains how the competition works and why it’s one you shouldn’t miss.

 

Undiscovered Voices is the brainchild of authors Sara Grant and Sara O’Connor, who set up the competition almost twenty years ago to find the best new writing for kids, and fast-track it to the attention of as many UK-based literary agents and editors as possible. Since then, the scheme has been responsible for launching the careers of well over forty authors, many of whom found their agents and even their editors as a direct result of the competition.

 

Something for everyone

 

Unlike a lot of writing comps, UV doesn’t result in one overall winner, but in a team of winners, whose work can span age-groups, genres and writing styles. This means that in every anthology distributed to industry professionals there will be something for all reading tastes - from comedy chapter books for younger readers, to futuristic YA thrillers and magical Middle Grades. For agents, it’s a snapshot of sixteen potential best-sellers or at the very least, sixteen new writers who might just be their Next Big Thing.

 

Similar to a regular submission package, the competition requests the first 2,500 words of your book, a brief synopsis of the plot, and a ‘tag line’ which sells your story in just 35 words. A team of beta readers then assesses all the entries anonymously, and the top 35-40 entries are forwarded to our judging panel to read and deliberate over. For UV 26, our judges are literary agents Julia Churchill, Becky Bagnell and Saskia Leach, and editors Charlie Castelletti, Frances Taffinder and Tierney Holm. They’ll have the unenviable task of whittling down that longlist, to a short-list of sixteen finalists.

 

What to expect

 

In addition to being included in the UV anthology - which is sent out to over 100 editors and agents - finalists are invited to attend an in-person ‘Getting Discovered’ workshop in central London led by previous alumni, and will receive mentoring from a fellow published author. The finalists are also guests of honour at a launch party in central London, hosted by our sponsor Working Partners, where they will be introduced to agents and editors and given the chance to pitch their book in person.

 

The competition is free to enter for all SCBWI members in the UK and EU, however if you’re not a member of SCBWI the competition also offers several sponsored memberships and free access to a series of online writing workshops. For more details on how to apply for a sponsored place email UV@britishscbwi.org.

 

This year, the competition will open on July 3rd, but throughout June, the UV team in conjunction with SCBWI-BI will be offering a package of three online workshops to help you hone your submission and edit your book. And don’t miss our FREE online launch on May 22nd, when our six judges will be talking live about what they’re hoping to discover in the next round of Undiscovered Voices – maybe it’s you and your book. For updates and more information, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter – more details at www.undiscoveredvoices.com

 

 

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In 2024 Maggie won The Cheshire Novel Prize for Kids and was a SCBWI Undiscovered Voices finalist. She was also shortlisted for The Times/Chicken House Prize and longlisted for the MsLexia Kids Novel Prize and the Bath Kids Novel Prize. She also got absolutely nowhere in quite a few other prizes, proving you can’t win ‘em all. She is Deputy Chair of the Committee for Undiscovered Voices 2026 which will launch later this Spring. For more information on how Undiscovered Voices could launch your writing career –visit www.undiscoveredvoices.com