TLC is delighted to announce the eighth cohort of writers selected from submissions open to LGBTQ+ writers, run during Pride month each year. The LGBTQ+ Free Reads scheme advocates for better representation and accessibility in the worlds of literature and publishing.
As always, the quality of submissions was incredibly high, and it was as tough as ever for our filter readers to select a final ten writers. The winners will receive free professional feedback on the first 15,000 words of their novels or novels-in progress from novelist, writing tutor and TLC Editor Michael Langan.
Michael said: As always, the standard of entries for the 2024 LGBTQ+ Free Reads Scheme was incredibly high and I want to thank everyone who entrusted us with their work. What was especially exciting this year was the range and variety of submissions – from queer speculative fiction to family sagas, romantic novels filled with queer joy, historical fiction, genre-fluid autofiction, and drag ball comedies. It’s great to see LGBTQ+ writers stretching, and even breaking, the bounds of possibility and expectation. I hope all those who applied, whether they were awarded a place or not, will carry on writing, experimenting, and dreaming.
This year, all applicants were invited to a reading and Q&A with Michael and guest speaker, literary agent Abi Fellows (DHH Literary Agency), and the selected writers will also receive free 15-minute one to ones with Abi. Thanks to private donations, we were able to offer five places on top of the usual five generously supported by the scheme’s patron, Michael Langan. We would like to thank Writers’ HQ, Bluemoose Books, the novelist Laura Pearson, and a generous anonymous donor for their support of this scheme.
We rely on patrons, supporters and donors to ensure we can give generously to those most in need, and are grateful to those who opt to pay it forwards. Thank you.
We are extremely grateful to both Michael and Abi for making this scheme possible once again – and our huge congratulations to the winners, who are showcased below!
Gerry Byrne
Gerry Byrne is a queer (bi) neurodivergent writer living in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. As well as the novel, she is working on a solo spoken word performance Love 70/ 70 Love, featuring Fat Old White Lady rap.
“I hope this novel will contribute to the visibility of the variety of queer experience. Winning this LGBTQ+ Free Read is a step on the way to confirming there is an appetite for my kind of writing.”
About the Book
I conceived this novel, Victor Bravx in the depths of lockdown as a mental escape to an idyllic Greek island, but then got invested in the character of Vic, the depressed former drag king of the title, and her nemesis Cordelia. I hadn’t seen an older, working class, queer, neurodivergent woman, with mental health issues, depicted as the protagonist of the novels I read.
Joyia Fitch
Joyia Fitch received the Breakthrough Scholarship for Memoir Writers in 2024 with Curtis Brown Creative and was selected for a London Writers Award in 2021 with Spread the Word for Narrative Non-Fiction. Working with Clare Mackintosh, she wrote Of Sound Mind. Mostly. which is included in Will You Read This, Please? edited by Joanna Cannon (Borough Press, May 2023). She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from UCA, specialising in printmaking, performance art and photography. She lives in South London and works in TV, film, theatre and events, as an actress, casting assistant and hostess.
“I feel very lucky to have won an LGBTQ+ Free Read – to be receiving expert editing and agent advice is so vital for me at this stage. Writing is often lonely, and it is so easy to go around in circles due to lack of confidence, due to feeling stuck, due to not feeling ready or being unsure of the next steps. It is only by taking part in opportunities like the LGBTQ+ Free Read, where fresh experienced eyes will look at my work and offer constructive feedback, that I may be able to raise the standard of my writing with the aim of becoming agented and eventually published. What a fantastic scheme to help those of us still under-represented in publishing on our writing journeys – thank you so much for the opportunity – it gives me hope that change is possible.”
About the Book
My memoir, Yoo Said, I Say: A Love Story is a raw and powerful tale of falling into the clutches of a cult, watching my sanity slip away before waking up, returning home and confronting the harsh reality of toxic love. Set in the magic yet treacherous Balinese jungle, it tells of a gripping, explosive love between Yoo, a mesmeric tantric yogini guru and me – a disciple disillusioned with the West. In elucidating the human potential for recovery, I eventually take ownership of this destructive experience to rewrite a tale of hope and resilience. It’s not Eat, Pray, Love but it might be a bit like The Beach.
Ed Gaskell
Ed Gaskell is an IVCA award-winning scriptwriter, a broadcast TV director, video editorand author. He has written four handsome books on video production, but is most passionate about his recent accomplishments in fiction—Content, in which a redundant video director is beguiled into making promos for human auctions—and Wreckers, a gay gothic ghost story.
“Being selected as one of the winners of the TLC x Michael Langan’s LGBTQ+ Free Reads is utterly galvanising. As a reader, I’m perpetually frustrated at the dearth of adult modern gay thrillers. Never short of concepts and stories, I’ve spent many years striving to tell those tales coherently and compellingly. I am hugely looking forward to making the most of this opportunity and discovering how I might develop as an author and contribute purposefully to an ill-served genre.”
About the Book
Wreckers was nestled amongst the other books on a shelf in your West Country holiday cottage. You were enjoying a stifling summer break, packed with nothing but time to read and it was the lighthouse on the cover that enchanted you. You took the paperback to the beach, sand ungluing its pages from the spine—and it was only when you felt a chill that you realised you were halfway through and that the sun had gone, and you were quite, quite alone. You hurried back to the house, thunder mumbling, hail at your heel. You finished the book that evening, curled under a blanket on a cracked leather oxblood chair, the storm opening up around you. And the next day—your last day,—you slipped it back onto the shelf, a little more yellowed, a little more read, freshly scented with Ambre Solaire. And whilst memories of your holiday would blanche, your mind would often return to Morvana’s Point, swept away by the romance, haunted by the Skruthus Sway.
Lauren Goodfellow
Lauren Goodfellow is a neurodivergent and bisexual writer from Newcastle. She completed a Biomedical Sciences degree before packing away the pipettes to work in Communications, which was closer to her real dream of becoming an author. She found her voice and the confidence to call herself a writer after completing courses with Write Like A Grrrl. Now, she writes romantic stories packed with queer joy and self discovery, creating narratives that other people like her can escape into, working to create a sense of belonging on the page that isn’t always easy to find in real life. When not writing, she’s probably at circus training, trying to pet cats on the street or listening to Taylor Swift on repeat.
“I’m beyond thrilled to receive this support from TLC Free Reads! After a lifetime of reading and writing down endless pages of half-baked ideas, it wasn’t until recently that I committed to writing a whole manuscript. Since I typed out the final scene of my first draft, I found myself paralysed with self doubt that meant the manuscript has been languishing on my computer, untouched for months. This vote of confidence from TLC Free Reads couldn’t have come at a better time, as it’s exactly the motivation I need to jump back into the deep end of editing. I know that the invaluable advice of experts like Michael Langan and Abi Fellows at this crucial time in my book’s life will help me polish Questioning until it shines.”
About the Book
Questioning is a women’s fiction novel with a large helping of sapphic romance. It follows Lucy, who has just been dumped by the man she thought she’d spend her life with, as she finds community and herself within Manchester’s thriving queer scene. When she meets Aaliyah, the eccentric artist’s confident and charming nature stirs up feelings that are more than just friendship, leading Lucy to question her sexuality. She wrestles with the thought that she may be imagining these feelings to fit in with her new queer friends, or if it’s possible that she’s been attracted to men and women her whole life and chose the straight and narrow to fit in with society as a whole.
Charlie Hart
Charlie Hart graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Swansea University, with a year at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2021, and with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in 2023. She lives in Wiltshire, and can be found at @cahartwrites on X and @cardaminecrone on Instagram.
“I have been absolutely delighted to be one of the winners for the LGBTQ+ Free Reads. As passionate as I have been about writing fiction, for a long time I have been afraid to put my work ‘out there’, but I’m so glad I did and have a newfound confidence to keep going. I’m greatly looking forward to my manuscript assessment!”
About the Book
My manuscript – with the working title Aperitif – follows Hector, the teenage son of a British mother and American father, as he goes back and forth across the Atlantic and becomes increasingly alienated from his mismatched and perpetually unhappy family. This is a book that has been in progress a long time and has evolved drastically from its earliest form, and it took me until this year to realise that it’s a story about loneliness, something that in our world feels especially inevitable when both queer and autistic. I can’t wait to see how the book will further grow.
Julia Hien
Julia Hien is a British born Chinese, LGBTQ+ YA romance writer based in South East London. With an 18 year career as a rapper and singer-songwriter who depicted her stories and experiences through lyrical rhymes and experimental melodies, her music earned her support from BBC Radio London, multiple semi finalist positions in songwriting competitions and performances at Thamesmead Festival, Joy Ruckus Club 3 and Sounds Queer at Sofar Sounds. Julia has also dabbled in spoken word, producing and performing for the likes of Word Soul, Poetic Unity, Tastes of Thamesmead, Raw Material, Music Declares Emergency and Mind Your Head Art Cabaret.
“I’m so pleased and honoured to be one of the ten winners for the TLC LGBTQ+ Free Reads! When I first read the e-mail, I honestly couldn’t believe it – I was dealing with other writing related rejections and life was truly life-ing, but this news really made my week and I had the biggest smile on my face! My love for words has stemmed from childhood and now I feel like I’m truly giving myself a chance to pursue my author dreams. I’m ever so grateful that platforms such as The Literary Consultancy exist to provide accessible resources and further support for aspiring authors and underrepresented writers and voices in storytelling. I’m very excited to receive editorial feedback from Michael Langan on my work in progress and speak about publishing with Abi Fellows!”
About the Book
Project Blossom (working title) is a young adult contemporary romance novel-in-progress (currently in its fourth draft stage) that follows a teenage girl who is forced to navigate new rules of life when she goes head to head with something worse than her overprotective Chinese parents. It explores themes of love, loyalty, identity and the power of community.
Phil Jones
After graduating from the University of Leeds in 2016, Phil Jones went on to run a theatre company and write for the stage. He was also selected as one of the Young Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Writers. More recently, he was a finalist in Pulp Idol 2023—a novel writing competition run by Writing on the Wall. He now lives in Liverpool with his cat, Dante, and works in marketing at the University of Liverpool.
“It is terrific to see TLC celebrating underrepresented LGBTQ+ voices, stories, and writers by giving our work and us a platform. Writing can often be a solitary thing, so the feedback and advice from the Free Read will, I am sure, be invaluable to helping me achieve my goal of publishing a book, calling myself an author and sharing stories of queer joy and essential visibility.”
About the Book
Potentially Great explores the beauty, depth, and toxicity of a long-spanning twenty-year friendship and love between two queer characters as they grow up, share and navigate life.When Theo and Sean are reunited at university, they are reminded of the summer they spent together as kids. The pain of their past is quickly forgotten, and the joy of it is remembered. Over the next decade, they create, inspire, hurt, and, most importantly, love each other as they fall in and out of each other’s lives and shape them. Set within the UK Arts Sector, the narrative touches on the pressure for creative people to prove themselves as adults and is divided into a five-act structure similar to that of a Shakespeare play. As a queer writer, it was important for me to centre LGBTQ+ characters in a narrative which doesn’t focus on their sexuality and instead adopts a non-defining approach valuing connection beyond sex or romance.
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith (He/Him) writes LGBTQ+ fiction for young adults under the pen name James A Lyons. He was born in Oxford but now resides within touching distance of Bournemouth beach. He has long had a passion for improving equality for the LGBTQ+ community.
He released his novel The Paper Boy in 2022, and the following year worked with actor Bradley Riches (Heartstopper) on the novella “A” Different Kind of Superpower, which has since been featured in British Vogue, Gay Times and Attitude. His upcoming YA novel, Out in Greenwood, will be published through SRL Publishing in Spring 2025.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been chosen as a winner for the LGBTQ+ Free Reads 2024. Being schooled under Section 28, representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the literature of my school library was non-existent, and I couldn’t see that changing for future students. To have an initiative like the LGBTQ+ Free Reads, supported by a wide range of members of the publishing industry, shows how much progress has been made over the past two decades, and this programme remains vital for raising the voices of under-represented writers.”
About the Book
The Dragnificent Seven, is an LGBTQ+ road trip comedy that follows gay twenty-year-old Harri. He was adopted into the Forrester family as a child, and after hearing of his estranged gay Uncle Eric’s death, Harri heads to London to learn more about the relative he never knew existed.
Arriving to Eric’s old flat, he learns about his uncle’s drag queen past, and that his dying wish was to reform his old Soho cabaret collective The Dragnificent Seven. Wanting to honour his uncle’s legacy, Harri travels around the United Kingdom to find the remaining six members of the collective and convince them to reunite. At each turn, he uncovers forgotten stories of love, loss and LGBTQ+ rights activism, and starts to discover not only who is uncle was, but who he is himself. When Harri’s homophobic parents discover his plans, he must decide between continuing his search, or face cutting ties with the adopted family that once saved him.
Jad Salfiti
Jad Salfiti is a British-Palestinian journalist and writer. He grew up spending summers in Palestine while brought up in Northern England. In his 20s, he wrote extensively on the intersection of culture and politics. In the lead-up to the 2023 war on Gaza, he covered top-down cancellations, banned pro-Palestine protests and legal battles with the German authorities. His written work has appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Al Jazeera English, Economist, Screen, Frieze, Interview Magazine, The Art Newspaper and Novara Media. Neues Deutschland is his first book.
“I’m thrilled to be selected by the Michael Langan LGBTQ+ Free Reads programme. Writing – like most creative pursuits- is a collaborative craft. My creative process is contingent on the generous and crucial feedback of others in a long, and perhaps never-ending, journey to finding my voice. This support will help towards finishing the book and perhaps in a small way push the needle on the discussion.”
About the Book
Neues Deutschland has one foot steeped in Palestinian history and folklore, and the other in hyper-local, intimate snapshots, Neues Deutschland takes the reader through different cities, homes, and times where people are kicked out and silenced for who they are: Palestinians being kicked out of their home during the Nakba, a gay man whose family reject him.
About Pride
You can find out more about events and activities taking place virtually, bringing communities together around the world, at the Pride UK website here: https://pride-events.co.uk/
About Free Reads
TLC Free Reads programme provides bursaried editorial services and mentoring to talented low-income, and otherwise marginalised or under-represented, writers. The Free Reads scheme was established with a pilot in 2001, and is now funded by Arts Council England. It is run in partnership with 22 regional literature partners including Arvon, Spread the Word, the National Centre for Writing, and New Writing North and many more. You can read more about it here: https://literaryconsultancy.co.uk/editorial-services/ace-free-reads-scheme/
