One of Madonna’s favourite artists, award-winning Adrian Wiszniewski, is among the 10 debut novelists in the running for this year’s Dundee International Book Prize.
Wiszniewski, who was part of the “New Glasgow Boys” group of the 1980s, will compete with other aspiring authors including Irish actor Simon Ashe-Browne, Jay Weber from Arlington, USA, and Dundee’s own Alissa Jones Nelson.
A total of 120 writers submitted novels in the hope of winning a publishing deal and the £10,000 prize the highest offered by any UK prize for unpublished authors.
Judges were left with the difficult task of narrowing the dozens of entries down to the top ten, which includes writers based locally, nationally and internationally.
Extracts of the top 10 have been published online (link) to allow book lovers to pick their own favourites for the prize.
The top 10 will now be whittled down to a final three books and the eventual winner picked by judges Anna Day of Literary Dundee, head of Cargo Publishing Mark Buckland, and Emily Dewhurst of Dundee City Council.
Last year, Wigan author Alan Wight secured a publishing deal and the £10,000 prize for his debut novel, Act of Murder, a dramatic murder mystery set in his home town during Victorian times.
For more information, including extracts from the full top ten, visit www.literarydundee.co.uk/bookprize
Photo Alan Hillyer.