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Yeovil Literary Prize Judges 2021

Our 2021 Yeovil Literary Prize Judges are…

Novel Judge is Hellie Ogden

Hellie Ogden represents fiction, children’s books and non-fiction and enjoys novels with bold storytelling, moving prose and vivid, thought-provoking characters. In non-fiction she is looking for unique personal stories, campaigners, memoir and nature writing, cookery, lifestyle, and work that has a social following with cross-media potential. As an editorially focused agent, she has a keen interest in helping to develop and nurture debut writers. Follow her on Twitter @hellieogden.

Hellie featured in the Bookseller Rising Stars List and was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize. She represents a number of Sunday Times bestsellers and award-winning writers across genres. She often speaks at writing conferences and mentors debut writers.

Short Story Judge is Ayisha Malik

Ayisha Malik's adult novels include Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, The Other Half of Happiness, and This Green and Pleasant Land. Ayisha was a WHSmith Fresh Talent Pick and Sofia Khan has been a CityReads London book. Her children’s books include a retelling of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and The Seven Sisters. She is winner of The Diversity Book Awards and has been shortlisted for The Asian Women of Achievement Award, Marie Claire's Future Shapers' Awards and the h100 Awards. Her next novel, The Movement, is to be published in spring 2022.

Twitter: @Ayisha_Malik
Instagram: @ayisha82

Poetry Judge is Sean Borodale

Photograph: Mark Vessey

Sean Borodale works as a poet and artist, making scriptive and documentary poems written on location. He was Resident Artist & Writer at Bluecoat, Liverpool, 2016-2017 and was Creative Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge from 2013-15.

He was selected as a Granta New Poet in 2012, and his debut collection Bee Journal was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize and the Costa Book Award in 2013. Mighty Beast, a documentary poem for Radio 3 won the Radio Academy Gold Award in 2014 for Best Feature or Documentary.

His topographical poem 'Notes for an Atlas' was recommended by Robert Macfarlane in the Guardian Summer Books 2005. It was performed in 2007 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, directed by Mark Rylance, as part of the first London Festival of Literature.

Sean’s second collection of poems, Human Work, was published in 2015. Among many projects and residencies to date he was Northern Arts Fellow at the Wordsworth Trust in 1999, and from 2002-7 he was a teaching fellow at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.

Writing Without Restrictions Judge is Steve Voake

Steve Voake is the award-winning author of several YA novels including The Dreamwalker's Child, The Starlight Conspiracy and Blood Hunters (Faber & Faber). He has also written several series for younger readers including Daisy Dawson, Hooey Higgins and Maxwell Mutt (Walker Books).

Insect Detective was awarded Best Illustrated Non-Fiction Children’s Book by the English Association. Steve is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and a regular tutor for the Arvon Foundation. He has taught a writing master class for the Guardian and was long listed for the University of Canberra’s International Poetry Prize in 2016.

Before writing his first novel, Steve was Headteacher of a primary school in Somerset.

2021 YCAA Book Group

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