Spotlight Profiles showcases Spotlight First Novel Award 2024 winner Alex Kellett with his novel, Absolute Lad.
Spotlight First Novel Award highlights writers at a key stage and offers transitional support. Now in its thirteenth year, the success rate continues to rise. A growing number of previous winners are now published, including Philip Bowne, Kate Swindlehurst, Zoe Gilbert and Anne Madden, with Shylashri Shankar upcoming in 2025.
Spotlight Profiles
Profiles are designed to bridge the transition from completing a first novel to preparing for publication. This is an opportunity to consider image, pitch and presentation within a professional context. This is a pre-publication stage devised to build confidence and offer some key insight into how the publishing industry operates.
What makes a winning entry?
Alex’s novel turns the quintessential hero’s journey upside down in an exploration of toxic masculinity. Absolute Lad covers familiar yet underwritten territory – the world of amateur football in a down-at-heel East Midlands town. The key elements of successful fiction are here – a striking title, an intriguing premise and a memorable first page.
Absolute Lad is definitely a novel to watch out for!
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