Meet our
Team

Ascent Novel Prize readers are looking forward to receiving your work. Our initial assessment team consist of readers and authors from across the industry. Our judging panel will consist of one agent and one senior commissioning editor.

At Ascent Novel Prize, it is important that your work is evaluated by a range of professionals. The judging panel select the winner from a hard-won shortlist. This writing competition ensures every story is read with care.

Following the selection of the winner, our panel meet one last time to award the highest scoring writers from under-represented backgrounds. These awards are sponsored by a range of wonderful writers and businesses.

Ascent Novel Prize
Judges

Ajebowale Roberts
Senior Commissioning Editor
Tor UK

When I read I want to be taken away to a different world. I want to fall in love, have my heart broken, travel, experience heart-wrenching betrayal and hair-raising battles. Romantasy and romance are my heartland and the spicier the better! But I also love SFF!

I joined Tor in 2025, where I'm building a bespoke list across fantasy romance, romantasy, SFF and romance. Authors I work with include Nikki St. Crowe, Lucy Lehane and Jade Church. As an editor I want to build a list that represents the society that we live in and that pushes boundaries and elevates intersectionally diverse authors. I'm looking for books that break my heart into a million pieces and then put it back together again.

Amazing authors I have worked with in the past are Elizabeth Helen, Amélie Wen Zhao, R. F. Kuang, Laurie Gilmore, Melissa McTernan, Beth O'Leary, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Rebecca Ross, Analeigh Sbrana, Chioma Okereke, Ehigbor Okosun and many more.

I'm looking forward to reading intersectionally diverse novels that are character driven and pull me in from the first sentence. My best advice for writers feeling nervous about entering their work would be: don't stand in your own way. Your writing is meaningful, worthy and deserves to be seen.

Camille Burns
Literary Agent
Solas Literary

I'm originally from Glasgow, but have lived in and around London for more than ten years now, working in publishing roles including at David Higham Associates, Diamond Kahn & Woods, Bolinda and Routledge. In 2025, I founded my own agency, Solas Literary, which takes its name from the Scottish Gaelic word meaning “light,” “comfort,” and “joy.”

I’m drawn to fiction that really pulls me in. I love stories with a strong sense of atmosphere, emotional depth, and relationships that stay with you. And I love romance in all its forms! So, whether you're writing romantasy full of yearning, a contemporary love story with an irresistible hook, or historical fiction with a compelling romantic thread, I want to see it.

One of my favourite parts of being an agent is helping writers shape and strengthen their stories. I often get most excited by the manuscripts that have a real spark – something in the voice, the characters or the concept that makes me start imagining all the exciting ways the story could be developed. Don't worry about being perfect; just show me why this is the story you had to write.

Ascent Novel Prize
Top 100 Readers

Stacey Thomas

Author of the spell-binding novel, THE REVELS, Stacey Thomas is excited to be part of Ascent Novel Prize in its inaugural year. She is looking forward to reading all the amazing submissions that will come through. As a reader, she has a weakness for a killer first line, fresh approaches and strong writing across all genres. As a writer, she encourages you to be brave! Before being published she entered numerous competitions and ended up winning the ones she never thought she'd have a chance at. She looks forward to reading your entry.

Pete

Frost

Independent Bookshop owner and voracious reader, Pete Frost cannot wait to discover the next best-selling author. Enjoying a wide variety of genres, Pete is excited to read work with killer hooks or emotional depth. Entering writing competitions can be like taking a leap of faith, but with sensitive and astute readers, your work is in good hands. Pete encourages all writers to enjoy the process and share their hard won words with the world.

Ty
Ogunade

Ty Ogunade is a lawyer and writer of Nigerian heritage based in East London. As the founder of the London Sci-Fi & Fantasy Authors Writers Group, Ty believes in making publishing more accessible to the voices that often don't get the opportunity to be heard within the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Ty's mission is to advocate for and write works that imagine futures or worlds that reflect the diversity of the city that he calls home. As a lifelong lover of Sci-Fi, his cyberpunk novel A BLADE DRAWN FROM ENVY was announced as the winner of the Future Worlds Prize 2026.

Pim Wangtechawat

An author from Bangkok, Pim's debut novel THE MOON REPRESENTS MY HEART was published by Oneworld Publications in 2023 and has since been translated into multiple languages. She is thrilled to join Ascent Novel Prize in the search for heartfelt and innovative stories from writers around the world. As a reader, she gravitates toward layered characters and narratives that either ask though-provoking questions or sweep her into entirely new worlds. She encourages all writers to enjoy the process, trust their voices, and tell stories that feel honest and true to them.

Laure Van Rensburgh

Laure Van Rensburg is the author of NOBODY BUT US and THE GOOD DAUGHTER and has had several short stories placed in competition. As a reader she is looking forward to reading stories that draws her in through immersive writing and subtly weaved tension. She has a weakness for flawed characters and evocative prose. Back when she was an unpublished writer, she entered and placed in a few novel competitions, and one advice she would like to share is to make sure to polish your entry as much as possible before submitting…and remember that placing in a competition is a great boost, but if you don’t make it, it isn’t a reflection on your writing.

A.Y. Chao

Alice is thrilled to join the Ascent Novel Prize Award team and can’t wait to read your entries! She's the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Shanghai Immortal. The follow up Paris Celestial publishes March 2026. She adores immersive heartfelt stories and memorable voices, especially ones that make her laugh. Her advice to writers: There is no single “right way” to write. Plotter or panster, handwritten or typed, sequential or non-chronological, strict or irregular writing sessions, anything in between: it’s all good. The important thing is getting your story down in a way that works for you.