Ampersand Project not awarded in 2014

Hardie Grant Egmont has announced that its Ampersand Project for unpublished YA authors will not be awarded this year.

The publisher said in a statement that the project, which opened for its third round of submissions in June 2014, did not receive a ‘single manuscript that met all the criteria’.

‘Authors on the longlist have received tailored feedback on their manuscripts; it’s sincerely hoped that many of these talented writers will continue to develop relationships with the team outside the Ampersand Project,’ said the publisher.

The publisher added that the ‘critical and commercial success of [inaugural winner] Melissa Keil’s Life in Outer Space has set the bar very high’.

Hardie Grant Egmont signed two YA novels in the second round of the Ampersand Project. Erin Gough’s The Flywheel will be published in February 2015. The second novel will no longer be published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

Read Hardie Grant Egmont’s press release here.