Today I am in conversation with not one but three guests! We're talking about the incredible impact of the Women's Prize Discoveries from three perspectives - 2026 Judge and Curtis Brown literary agent Ciara Finan, 2022 shortlistee and author of the extraordinary debut novel Ordinary Saints, Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin and Alice Trew, 2024 shortlistee who has just secured a 2 book deal, the first of which The Hungry Dark, will be out in 2027.

Ciara talks us through her work as a literary agent and what she'll be looking for amongst entries in the 2026 prize, and Niamh and Alice talk about their experiences as shortlistees and the incredible impact it has had on their careers and their community as writers.

The Women's Prize Discoveries is open to all women aged over 18 who are unagented and unpublished, resident in the UK and Ireland, and writing in English, in any adult fiction genre. The deadline for the 2026 prize is January 12th. Submission is free and requires 10k words and a synopsis. See the link below for more details.

Links

Women's Prize Discoveries

Ordinary Saints - Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin

Curtis Brown Creative

Ciara Finan at Curtis Brown

Alice on Instagram

Niamh on Instagram

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

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Chartered psychologist, coach and author Suzy Reading believes women need to learn to be a bit selfish. After many books on the subject of self care and self nourishment, Suzy focuses her new book How To Be Selfish, instead, on the importance of receiving care.

Suzy and I talk about why women struggle with self advocacy so much and why it's a vital skill to live a full life, especially one in which we contribute so much to our families and communities. We also talk about why writers specifically need to be a little bit selfish and why it's worth learning how to be.

Links

How To Be Selfish by Suzy Reading

Suzy Reading on Instagram

The Fold membership for writers

Penny Wincer on Instagram

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Lily Dunn is the author of the acclaimed Sins of My Father and her latest book Into Being brings together her experience as a writer and teacher of literary memoir. It's an essential read for anyone embarking on personal narrative form. Lily talks with me about assumptions people get wrong about memoir, the unique relationship between memoirist and reader and the ethics and challenges of writing about other people.

Links

Into Being by Lily Dunn

Sins of My Father by Lily Dunn

London Lit Lab

Memoir Bootcamp with Lily Dunn

The Fold Writers Membership

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Claire Lynch is on the podcast this week talking about her incredible debut novel A Family Matter, the story of a family torn apart and the decades of silence that follows. This is Claire's second time on the podcast - we spoke way back in 2021 about her memoir Small: On Motherhoods.

Claire talks with me about when she first discovered how lesbian mothers had access to their children forcibly removed by court order well into the 1990s in the UK and her decision to explore this heartbreaking recent history in fiction. Claire talks about the varied reception the book has had across different regions facing differing political climates, as well as her recent decision to leave her job as a professor of literature and creative writing and write full time.

Links

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

Small: On Motherhoods by Claire Lynch

The Fold Membership for Writers

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Sunday Times best selling author Alice Slater is with me today talking about her second novel Let The Bad Times Roll, a dark and delicious follow up to her debut Death of a Bookseller.

Alice talks with me about the pleasures of writing immoral characters, finding her way into her 'difficult' second novel, the challenges of shift work (and why bookselling is a bad profession to have alongside writing) and why she is no where near ready to give up the day job just yet.

Links

Let The Bad Times Roll by Alice Slater

Death of A Bookseller by Alice Slater

Alice Slater on Substack

The Fold Membership for Writers

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Caro Giles is an award winning writer and author of two memoirs. Unschooled is about Caro's experience raising children who don't fit in to the school system. Forced to homeschool out of necessity rather than choice, Caro weaves in her own experiences as a teacher at both mainstream and specialist provisions to uncover what is an inadequate and chronically underfunded system that is failing so many children in this country. It's a truly beautiful book about making the most of a system virtually impossible to navigate if you don't fit into a neat little box. Caro talks about how the book has been received in mainstream media, using your voice to stand up for those whose lives are at the edges and just how on earth she managed to finish the book to such a tight deadline whilst caring and homeschooling full time.

Links

Unschooled by Caro Giles

Twelve Moons by Caro Giles

Caro on Substack and Instagram

The Fold Membership for Writers

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Lily King is an award winning and best selling author of 6 novels and a short story collection. Her latest novel Heart The Lover is an exquisite and profoundly hopeful book about first love and first heartbreak. Lily shares the most incredible wisdom from her 25 years as an author, from waitressing to pay the bills, to the holding on to herself as a writer during early motherhood, to writing about love and hope in a time of political upheval.

Links

Heart The Lover by Lily King

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

Writers and Lovers by Lily King

Penny on Instagram

The Fold Membership for Writers

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Huge thanks to xigxag for sponsoring the series

Not Too Busy To Write is back from series 11 from October 15th with some incredible authors. Here's a little preview of what's to come.

Links

pennywincerwrites.com

The Fold Writer's membership

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code TOOBUSY to your account.

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!