We are delighted, along with Hannah Richell and the Richell family, and in partnership with Hachette Australia, to announce the longlist for the 2026 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.

The Richell Prize longlisted writers for 2026 are:

Chloe Anne, The House Where Mercy Died

Lazio Akbar, Resonance: The Archive of Silences

Noor Ahmed, Dhaka, Written in Skin

Kirsty Anantharajah, Ila

Arden Baker, On Winds Fair and Fast

Rhea Cai, Decoherence

Rachel Coutinho, Rani’s Choice

Tracey-Lee Daranjo, A Long Forgetting

Travis Englefield, August Kennedy

Farrin Foster, The Same House

Euri Glenn, Harvest

Lucas Grainger-Brown, Ursong

Mike Boynes, Moola Bulla

Nalini Jacob-Roussety, Old Arts

KT Major, Peril

Carielyn Tunion, Aswang

Gillian Worrall, Exhibit A for Althea

Magz Morgan, Ethel’s War

Meagan Neil, In the Keeping of Women

Anthony Nicola, Pousti

Hattie Salmon, Webs

Harriet Radford, Blue Moon 3

Jonno Revanche, The Sky Looks Bigger in Other Places

Madeleine Speed, Excellent Behaviour

The writers on this longlist will be judged on the first three chapters of their submitted work, along with a synopsis outlining the direction of the proposed work and details about how their writing career would benefit from winning the Prize. The winner will receive $10,000, donated by the Richell family, along with a 12-month mentorship with one of the publishers. Hachette will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript, with the first option to consider the finished work for publication.

Vanessa Radnidge, Head of Non-Fiction & Literary at Hachette, says, ‘Congratulations to all the longlisted writers. This year we had 1022 entries into the prize, and the calibre of entries was impressive. To see so many writers back themselves and enter the Prize means the award is doing exactly what we had hoped, honouring the memory of former Hachette CEO Matt Richell and supporting and encouraging emerging writers. Everyone at Hachette, along with the Richell family, is proud to present this prize and we are enormously grateful to the team at EWF and to the prize entry readers, who help to make it all happen. Thank you to everyone who entered this year and congratulations again to the twenty-four longlisted writers.’

Anita Solak, EWF Richell Prize Project Coordinator, says, ‘Receiving over 1000 entries this year left us with an enormous task when deciding who to longlist, and to honour the effort of this incredible community of writers, we’ve decided to extend the longlist to twenty-four this year. Thank you to the readers who helped us create the longlist and to the writers who submitted, sharing your work with us is already a huge step in your publication journey. There is undeniable passion and talent brewing in these entries, may we all one day be lucky enough to read the books that you have dreamed of and brought to life.’