Publishing Prize
The Shortlist
— 2026 —
Finlay Lloyd Publishers and the 20/40 Judging Panel are delighted to announce the Shortlist for 2026:
Killing Tully Herbert, Philip Canon
Tormenta, Madelaine Dickie
Becoming Mrs Smith, Robyn Ferrell
Uncomfortable Silence, Louise Martin-Chew
A comment on this year’s Shortlist from Finlay Lloyd publisher, Julian Davies:
‘Our press and the 20/40 judging panel would like to congratulate the shortlisted authors and celebrate their achievement. Because entries in a publishing prize are all unpublished pieces, they are unavailable to the public. That’s exactly why we established 20/40—to provide an avenue for writers to try their hand at works of this length, where two entries enjoy the process of becoming books. For the shortlisted authors who don’t go on to win the prize, we hope being shortlisted will be a fillip and recognition of the work they’ve done, and an incentive to keep writing ’
The panel was engaged by the breadth of approaches in the shortlist.
Killing Tully Herbert, Philip Canon
Beth Border, the narrator of this vividly realised short novel, shares with the reader her fixation with an imaginary friend, Anastasia. ‘Together’, they try to navigate Beth’s place in a world undermined by her deeply complex sense of responsibility for the death of a friend.
Tormenta, Madelaine Dickie
A young couple cut free to head off on a surfing trip in Mexico, taking their small child with them. But their laidback adventure quickly descends into a disorienting and threatening nightmare. This is a short novel written with a vitality that is both nuanced and suitably feverish.
Becoming Mrs Smith, Robyn Ferrell
In a university psychology seminar, the narrator of this inventive and playful short novel is reminded, with some surprise, of an imaginary friend from her childhood—a stout and intrusive middle-aged woman. And so begins an intriguing and amusing escapade about the shifting nature of identity.
Uncomfortable Silence, Louise Martin-Chew
This memoir by a mother about her daughter’s ‘selective mutism’, takes the reader into the fraught and moving journey of a child’s withdrawal from communicating with the adults around her, the hidden forces at its source, and the implication of wider, societal silences around us.
A note on the 20/40 process:Due to the editing and production process, it is intrinsic to a publishing prize that when the shortlisted entries are announced the winning books are already in the final stages of being prepared for publication. Announcing the shortlist is intended to be a form of recognition and celebration of the efforts of all four writers.
