Claudia Amuah wins Mo Siewcharran Prize hosted by Bookouture
Bookouture have announced Claudia Amuah’s The Other Woman as the winner of this year’s Mo Siewcharran Prize.
Amuah wins a £2,500 cash prize as well as detailed editorial feedback and a follow-up online session. She will also be offered an introductory meeting with a literary agent and have her submission taken forward to Bookouture’s acquisitions meeting where it will be considered for publication under their no advance, 45% royalty model.
The awards ceremony was held at Hachette UK’s London office on 24th September 2026, where the first and second place runners-up were also announced as F. G. Liauw’s The Song Beneath the Snow and Amara Ede’s The Benefits of Marriage.
This year the prize was open to romance and psychological thriller writers and the shortlist was chosen by a judging panel that consisted of Ellen Gleeson, Publisher at Bookouture, Hennah Sandhu, former co-chair of Thrive (Hachette UK’s network for Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage employees and allies), Leodora Darlington, author of The Exes, Silé Edwards, Litery Agent and Jenn Li, bookish content creator @bookmarkonthewall.
Ellen Gleeson, Publisher at Bookouture said: “The judges were totally hooked by the premise for The Other Woman: a woman sits outside a perfect family home, watching their every move through the window before leaving a red envelope inside the house that will shatter their lives. It’s a fantastic psychological thriller concept, in-line with the genre and what we know readers love, but Claudia’s voice – chilling and laced with suspense – made the extract truly stand out. We were completely addicted to reading Claudia’s work and wished we could carry on and discover the rest of the story.”
The prize, which runs part of Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf initiative and forms an important part of the publisher’s Changing the Story pillar, aims to nurture talent from writers from a Black, Asian, minority ethnic and/or mixed heritage backgrounds. It is named in memory of NielsenIQ BookData’s former Director of Marketing and Communications, Mo Siewcharran, and is now in its seventh year. The prize is sponsored by John Seaton, Siewcharran’s husband and co-founder of the prize, as well as NielsenIQ BookData. It was run by a committee at Bookouture including Jess Readett, Ellen Gleeson, Laura Deacon and Jess Whitlum-Cooper.
John Seaton said: “This year the Mo Siewcharran Prize had a record number of submissions. That makes the achievement of winning and being runners-up all the more impressive. My huge congratulations to the winner, Claudia Amuah, and the two runners-up, F.G. Liauw and Amara Ede. I also want to thank Bookouture, and most especially Jess Readett, for the flair and efficiency with which they have hosted the prize. The Mo Siewcharran Prize is nothing if not eclectic having already visited several genres. The journey will continue in 2027. Where? For now, I must leave you on tenterhooks!”
Jenny Geras, Managing Director of Bookouture said: “It’s been a true privilege to host the Mo Siewcharran Prize this year and I’d like to say a huge congratulations to our winners and runners-up, as well as all of our shortlisted and longlisted writers. This year feels like a particularly celebratory one as it marks 10 years of Changing the Story, and our commitment at Hachette UK to ensuring inclusion across our staff, culture and publishing. ”
Bookouture are the global publisher of bestselling commercial fiction and home of mass market bestsellers and unrivalled international author brands such as Freida McFadden, Angela Marsons and Kaylie Smith.
About Bookouture
Bookouture is an award-winning, dynamic digital publisher of bestselling commercial fiction. Our unique publishing model and transformative campaigns have created unrivalled international author brands. We connect stories, authors and readers globally, publishing books that reflect the diversity of the societies we live in. Our submissions are always open as we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to share their story.Bookouture is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 11 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.
About Hachette UK:
Our mission at Hachette UK is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.
We are the UK’s second largest publishing group with 10 autonomous divisions and over 50 imprints with a rich and diverse history. We are the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.
We publish thousands of new books across the group every year and our authors include Rebecca Yarros, Stephen King, Alice Oseman, John Grisham, Adam Kay, Val McDermid, David Nicholls, J.K. Rowling, Ian Rankin, and Malala Yousafzai.
Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Little, Brown, Orion, John Murray Press, Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, Bookouture and Octopus. Hachette Children’s Group publishes a diverse range of books for children of all ages and Hachette Learning is a market leader in high-quality educational materials and services. In 2022, we welcomed Paperblanks, the second-largest premium stationery brand in the world, to our group.
We have eight offices around the UK, including our headquarters in London and the Hely Hutchinson Centre (HHC) for distribution in Didcot. We have subsidiaries in several other regions, including Australia, India, Ireland, Jamaica and New Zealand.
