It Must Be Love: Welcome to Modern Stories’ Romance Writing Competition
Headline and Curtis Brown Creative have teamed up to find exciting new voices in romantic fiction, in association with Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf.
What we’re looking for
Modern Stories: It Must Be Love is a new romance novel-writing competition seeking to uplift and support emerging writers from Black, Asian, mixed heritage and/or multiple ethnic backgrounds. If you’re writing a novel full of weak-at-the-knees meet-cutes, angsty unrequited pining, missed connections, and that moment where someone finally says because I love you, then this one’s for you.
Send us your heart-melters, your tear-jerkers, your heart-wrenchers, your knife-to-the-chest love stories – basically anything that’ll keep us up all night turning the pages. From 90s rom-com re-tellings and cosy small-town love stories, to opposites-attract hockey romances and reimagined enemies-to-lovers romantasy, if it makes us cry, sigh, and believe in love all over again, we want to read your story!
We welcome romantic fiction across genres, including romantic comedy, romantic drama and romantasy. The novel must be for adults and fit into the category of commercial fiction i.e. a compelling plot, memorable characters, snappy dialogue and, of course, no shortage of romance. Novels do not have to be finished; judges are looking for brilliant voices, strong concepts and a compelling romance that takes centre stage.
Criteria for Entry
Entrants must be unagented and previously unpublished, aged 18 or over, resident in the UK and from a Black, Asian, mixed heritage and/or multiple ethnic background.
Submission criteria:
Up to the first 5,000 words of the novel
A synopsis of the novel (up to 600 words). This should tell us what the rest of the story is about – don’t worry about giving away the twists; we want to know what happens in the beginning, the middle and the end! If you’d like more advice on writing a synopsis, check out this blog from Curtis Brown Creative.
Submissions will open on 12th February 2026 and close on 11:59PM on 14th April 2026.
Full terms and conditions are available here.
Key dates
12th February 2026 – Submissions open
14th April 2026 – Submissions close
26th May 2026 – Longlist of sixteen announced
7th July 2026 – Shortlist of six announced
3rd September 2026 – Winner and two runners up announced
The Prizes
The winner will receive:
£1,000 cash prize
A place on Curtis Brown Creative’s three-month online Writing Your Novel course
Two editorial mentoring sessions with a Headline Eternal editor
An introductory meeting with Curtis Brown literary agent Sheila Crowley
A hamper of Headline Eternal romance books
Two runners up will each receive:
One editorial mentoring session with a Headline Eternal editor
A place on one of Curtis Brown Creative’s 5/6-week writing courses
An introductory meeting with a Curtis Brown literary agent
A hamper of Headline Eternal romance books
The Judges
Soraya Bouazzaoui
Soraya is Senior Commissioning Editor of Headline Eternal. She previously worked for Harlequin Mills & Boon, editing swoony billionaire and historical romances. At Eternal she continues to champion these genres, while expanding her list to include horror and monster romances. Soraya is also an author herself and her debut novel, Aicha, publishes with Orbit in March 2026. Other than romance, Soraya loves horror and dark science fiction, so a mash up of all three is magic to her.
Abby Parsons
Abby is Curtis Brown Creative’s Senior Courses Manager and Editor. Abby was previously an editor of commercial fiction at Hodder & Stoughton and Little, Brown Book Group, where she worked on bestselling books and exciting debut authors. For nine years she ran a publishing platform for women writers, and has loved working closely with new writers to help them find the very best version of their story ever since.
Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Rufaro is a British Zimbabwean writer who studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Surrey. She works as a podcast producer, bringing stories to life through audio, and has written and produced podcasts for the BBC, iHeartRadio and Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books. Her debut, Let The Games Begin was published in 2024 and her second novel, Skate It Till You Make It will be published by Headline Eternal in February 2026.
Maame Blue
Maame is the author of two novels; Bad Love, which won the 2021 Betty Trask Award, and The Rest Of You, shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prose Prize. Her short stories have appeared in four anthologies, including 2025’s Be Gay, Do Crime. She writes for multiple publications including The Bookseller, Writers Mosaic and Arts Hub Australia. She regularly mentors emerging writers working on their debut novels. Maame has also been a reader for multiple short story competitions including The Commonwealth Prize and The Brick Lane Short Story Prize, and in 2024 she judged the John Florio Translation Prize. She regularly runs creative writing workshops and teaches for many places including Curtis Brown Creative.
Caden Armstrong
Caden (she/they) is the owner and founder of Book Lovers Bookshop, the UK’s first brick-and-mortar romance bookshop based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a masters in Publishing, a background in book content creation and experience as a self-published author of the rom-com Truthfully, Yours they combined their passion for romance fiction with bookselling and opened Book Lovers Bookshop in August 2024. Their aim was to create a Queer and disabled-owned space that uplifts and highlights romance fiction, authors and publishers. Since opening, the shop has been featured in multiple national and regional newspapers and radio segments and was the winner of the Romance Novel Association Awards title of Romance Champion of the Year in 2025.
Amy Beecham
About Headline Eternal
Boasting a passionate team who like nothing more than debating the perfect romantic pairings, Headline Eternal’s mission is to ensure that every fan finds their heart’s desire. Whether that’s a small-town, single-dad romance or a sexy 500-year old vampire prince.
We are committed to bringing romance lovers the best in the genre – whether it’s from established international bestsellers like Jasmine Guillory, Farrah Rochon, Jill Shalvis, and Jo Watson, or TikTok sensations such as Amber V. Nicole, Sarah Adams, Grace Reilly, Mazey Eddings, Erin Sterling, and Mariana Zapata.
Find us on Instagram @headlineeternal
About Curtis Brown Creative
Curtis Brown Creative (CBC) is one of the UK’s most successful writing academies, running courses online and in London. It’s the only creative writing school to be affiliated to a major literary and talent agency (The Curtis Brown Group). Since CBC was founded in 2011 by Anna Davis (still its Managing Director), over 280 students have become commercially published authors, including Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry), Emilia Hart (Weyward), Lucy Rose (The Lamb), Nussaibah Younis (Fundamentally), Jennie Godfrey (The List of Suspicious Things) and Alex Hay (The Housekeepers). Its Breakthrough Writers’ Programme is a major initiative offering free mentoring, courses and scholarships to under-represented writers.
Find us on Instagram @curtisbrowncreative
#ModernStories2026
Good luck!
