Joan Aiken Prize Shortlist

The shortlist for the Joan Aiken Future Classics Prize for “a standout new voice in middle grade children’s fiction” has been announced:

• Snow Foal, Susan Bailey-Sillick
• The Awful Orphanage, Tim Ellis
• The Thief of Serendib, Nizrana Farook
• Hartboy, Sophie Kirtley
• The Truth about Chickens, Caroline Murphy
• Return to the Wild, Nicola Penfold

Entrants can be “contemporary or magical, it could have the makings of a series, or be one crystalline stand-alone.” The competition is judged by agent Julia Churchill and Lizza Aiken, curator of the Aiken estate. The winner, to be announced September 14, 2017, will receive £1,000 and a set of The Wolves Chronicles by Joan Aiken.

For more information, and complete rules, see the A.M. Heath website.