Emerging Writer Award 2024 Winner
Lishani Ramanayake is a Sri Lankan writer based in London. Her writing has previously been published in Wasafiri, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast Journal, CULTURED and Porter House Review. She has performed from her work at the Singapore Writers Festival and Queen Mary University in London, and her work has been shortlisted for the ALCS-Tom Gallon Trust Award, the Barthelme Prize for Short Prose and the Porter House Review Editors Prize. Her work asks questions about migration and inherited trauma: where did we come from; where do we go from here; what do we carry with us?
She is currently at work on her first novel, and her writing can be found online at https://lishaniramanayake.com
“It is such a gift to be able to have the space and the time to dedicate solely to your writing, and I’m beyond thrilled to have won Moniack Mhor’s Emerging Writer Award. I’m deeply looking forward to being part of the community of writers that Moniack Mhor brings together – writing a novel can often feel like a solitary, uncertain undertaking, and I’m so grateful for the support that this Award offers.”
Second-Place Finalist
David Edgardo Martinez is a London-based writer, originally hailing from Mazatlan, Mexico. He was shortlisted in Merky Books New Writers, longlisted for Penguin Books UK Write Now’ and longlisted for the London Writer Awards. His short-stories have been featured in print and online through the 2023 LGBT+ writing collective, The Future is Back, and on the 10th Issue of Bad Form. His work explores migration, sexuality and intimacy, but most importantly, his writing showcases diverse narratives about the Latinx diaspora experience. He is currently working on his debut novel and collection of short stories.
Highly Commended
Lorna Elcock is a fiction writer. Her work has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize Trust Discoveries Award and longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. She has studied literature at Glasgow and York universities, and creative writing at Goldsmiths. Having finished her first novel – which, concerning youth hostels, fine art, birds of prey, Cumbernauld and Covent Garden, quite naturally took a very long time to write – she is now at work on her second. That, too, is set primarily in Scotland, to where she’s recently returned after many years away.
As a passionate advocate of lifelong learning, Frances Crawford was delighted to graduate in 2022, age 60, with MLitt (Distinction) Creative Writing from Glasgow University. She recently signed with agent Jo Unwin and is currently editing her debut crime novel The Dummy Railway, a version of which won the 2023 Bloody Scotland/Glencairn Crime Story Competition. The novel centres on women traditionally on the margins of crime genre, and despite the seriousness of subject matter and theme, the dual narrative embraces the humour that Glaswegians use to navigate the dark. Frances lives in Glasgow with her family and likes punk rock.
Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, and audiobook producer from Hawick in the Scottish Borders. Their writing is published in Extra Teeth, Gutter, New Maps, The Interpreter’s House, and Reflex Fiction. Having spent a decade as a bookseller and sales rep for Birlinn, their connection to Scotland’s literary scene continues as a production manager and editor-at-large for both Gutter and Extra Teeth. Cal is currently working on the completion of their first full-length manuscript, Porcelain—a body-hopping novel about death—and a poetry collection inspired by nature, love, and travel. They live and work in Glasgow.