Women's Prize and Chanel open US search for five new novelists
Five unpublished novelists in the United States will receive mentorship, career training and a cash grant under a new partnership between the Women's Prize Trust and CHANEL. The project is called Originators. It was launched in New York City, Publishing Perspectives reported.
The Trust is the British charity behind the Women's Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction, yearly awards open to women writers. It says it exists to enrich society by creating equitable opportunities for women in books and beyond. CHANEL is presenting the new programme.
The plan is to choose five writers. Each will work with established authors, build industry contacts and develop professional skills. Each will also receive a grant from CHANEL, meaning money to support the writing project that does not have to be repaid.
Applicants must be US-based novelists who have not yet published a novel. They must submit a 5,000-word sample of writing, a synopsis, a short summary of the novel's plot, and personal information. Full instructions are listed on the Trust's official Originators page and its FAQs page, which is aimed at emerging women fiction writers in the United States.
The Trust set out the plan in an announcement titled Introducing Originators. Writer A.M. Homes chairs the selection panel, the group that will choose the five. Homes has previously won the Women's Prize for Fiction, and the Trust is led by Executive Director Claire Shanahan.
The five writers will gather in New York City in spring 2027 for an announcement and celebratory event with the panel. Mentorship between the panel members and the cohort, the selected group, sits at the centre of the plan, WWD reported. The New York launch included a cocktail event, and Forbes described the project on 16 October 2026 as a search for the next generation of female fiction writers.
What makes this stand out for readers is the timing. Most prizes arrive after publication. This one steps in earlier, before an agent, the representative who sells a writer's work to publishers, before a publishing deal, and before a book reaches a shop shelf. For anyone watching from outside the industry, it is a look at how a writing career starts long before a cover appears.
