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Three unpublished authors will compete for the inaugural £10,000 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award (DRFWA), in honour of the late agent (pictured).
DRFWA was set up to fund first-time writers from the UK and Ireland so as to give them time to finish writing their books. The three shortlisted finalists and their works in progress are: Imogen Hermes Gowar’s The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock; Guy Stagg’s The Crossway and Sharlene Wen-Ning Teo’s Ponti. Judges Shena Mackay, Owen Sheers and Kate Summerscale whittled the shortlisted trio from 885 entries.
Rogers, who died in 2014, co-founded Rogers, Coleridge & White and was one of the UK’s most successful literary agents, with clients including Angela Carter, Peter Carey, Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro. The Deborah Rogers Foundation was set up in 2015, with board members including Four Colman Getty founder Dotti Irving, Faber c.e.o. Stephen Page and Rogers’ former RCW colleagues Gill Coleridge, Peter Straus and David Miller.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on 5th May, with McEwan presenting the award. On 28th May, Carey will host an event at the Hay Festival in honour of Rogers, during which he will introduce the DRFWA winner.