Anna Jefferson, Co-Director

Anna is a playwright and novelist. She has written for stage and screen since 2005. Her successful blog about parenting has been shortlisted for national awards. Has two novels published with Orion, Winging It, described as a ‘hilarious and relatable story of motherhood’ and Nailing It. She has just finished her third novel and is working on book four. Anna is Co-Director at New Writing South, the literary development agency for the South East.
www.annajefferson.uk

Sam Johnson, Co-Director

Sam is a freelance writer, she has an MA in Creative Writing from University of Brighton. Since 2018 she has lead creative writing workshops with a focus on being playful with words. She has written a successful blog about her travelling the world with small children, has poetry published in two anthologies and had work performed in Brighton Fringe. She is currently working on her first novel.

Shona Abhyankar, Advisory Group

Shona has been a book publicist for almost 30 years. She started her career as a Waterstones bookseller in the UK, followed by bookselling jobs in Sydney and Melbourne, whilst travelling around Australia. Shona has been an English teacher in Japan, a literary agent in Sydney, and is currently Head of PR for Penguin Random House. She has experience agency-side as well as in-house, has been a mentor for the Publishers Publicity Circle and is a founder member of the Primadonna Festival.

Shona works on both fiction and non-fiction and recent campaigns include The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Dianarama by Andy Webb and The Christmas Tree That Loved to Dance by Miranda Hart. Books she is excited about for 2026 include California Gold by Jodie Chapman and Medal Man by Mark Smith. Shona is a qualified psychotherapist which can be very useful as a book publicist.

Uju Asika, Advisory Group

Uju is a multi-award nominated blogger, author, speaker and creative writing mentor (ujuasika.com/writers). She is the founder of the Top 10 UK family blog Babes About Town and the author of 3 books including her acclaimed debut, Bringing Up Race, hailed as ‘timely and important’ (Evening Standard Best Books 2020). A former journalist, Uju has also been a screenwriter for some of Nigeria’s spiciest TV dramas. Her work has featured widely in the media e.g. BBC London, Woman’s Hour, Good Morning Sunday, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and The Observer. In 2025, she was Judging Chair for the Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction. Uju lives in north London with her family and enjoys bingeing Netflix dramas, practising tsundoku, and dancing in her kitchen. Follow Uju @babesabouttown across social media or visit her author website at ujuasika.com

Abi Fellows, Advisory Group

Abi is a literary agent with over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, having started in bookselling at Blackwell’s in 2001.  After a stint on the sales team of Faber and Faber, Abi began her agenting career with Georgina Capel Associates, spent several years as a literary scout at RR Ltd and returned to agenting at The Good Literary Agency, building a list focused on amplifying and championing writers from backgrounds that had traditionally been marginalised. In 2023, Abi joined DHH Literary Agency. Abi also has experience as a school governor with particular involvement in the schools literacy programmes and their work with children who have special educational needs and are disabled. She is currently a Trustee for New Writing South.

Annie Garthwaite, Advisory Group

Annie grew up in a working-class community in the northeast of England and studied English at the University of Wales before embarking on a thirty-year international business career. In 2017 she studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Warwick University and, during two years of study, wrote her debut novel Cecily which was published by Penguin in 2021. Cecily was named a ‘top pick’ by The Times and Sunday Times, a ‘Best Book of 2021’ by independent bookshops and Waterstones, and has recently been optioned for TV.

Annie’s second novel, The King’s Mother, was published by Penguin in July 2024 and was immediately named ‘Book of the Month’ by The Times.

Akila Richards, Advisory Group

Akila is an award winning published fiction writer, poet and spoken word artist. Her recent poetry pamphlet ‘Ritual For A Mango’ was launched in February 2024 at Goldsmith University. Performances and readings take place in artistic, cultural and community settings and feature in theatre, film, audio, visual arts and on digital platforms. Her work led to collaborations in Liberia, The Gambia, St Lucia, Berlin and UK. A yearlong residency at Brighton Dome led to the development of The Rest Experience. Akila’s portfolio includes coaching and mentoring as well as facilitating creative projects. She is currently writing a novel.
akilarichards.wordpress.com

Pam Williams, Advisory Group

Graduating from St Martin’s School of Art in 1984, Pam enjoyed a fashion career through to her late forties, working as a fashion journalist, magazine fashion editor (on She, PS, Shape and Now) and as a freelance stylist. She has since worked as a foster carer and a teaching assistant, now having retrained as a teacher in 2017, Pam leads the Post 16 provision at a special school.

Creative writing was always a passion and when Maya Angelou died in 2014 Pam adopted her heroine’s mantra ‘dare to try’ and set out to hone her writing skills. In 2019 she won a place on the writer’s development programme the London Writers Award and completed the first draft of her book.

March 2024 saw the fruition of Pam’s teenage dream to become a published author when her debut novel A Trace of Sun was released and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Candida Lacey, Advisory Group

Candida has worked in the publishing industry for many years, commissioning literary fiction, memoir, and feminist non-fiction. Her authors include winners and finalists of the Women’s Prize, Desmond Elliott, Authors’ Club Best First Novel, Polari, Jhalak and Diverse Book Awards.

As an editor at Pandora Press and Jonathan Cape, a publisher at Myriad Editions, and now as a literary agent with Pearlman & Lacey, she has always enjoyed working with both emerging and experienced writers, finding ways to showcase new talent, and championing books that highlight marginalized lives and perspectives.

She is co-founder and director of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award, which funds an African student to study at SOAS University of London, and an executor for the Estate of Kay Dick. Candida also volunteers as a mentor and editor for We Are Not Numbers, a platform to support emerging Pa