The Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize 2026 longlist
The wait is over! Till the shortlist wait
We’re happy and proud to finally share the ten books on this year’s longlist—the first year of the prize with our new name and partner, Queen Mary University, London.
The longlisted titles and presses can be found below in press alphabetical order.
Thanks again to every press that made a submission and to our brilliant judges, Marina Benjamin, Susanna Crossman and Stu Hennigan.
Toothpull of St. Dunstan by Kevin Davey, from Aaaargh! Press
The startling memoir of a dentist who for 700 years pulled teeth in the approach to Canterbury, beside its city gate. The hustle and bustle of a road congested with pilgrims, insurgents, migrants, dissenters, quacks, militias and Mods. Facetime with Thomas More, William Courtenay, Darwin, Marx and the Red Dean.
Toothpull of St Dunstan is a deep dive of discovery into the margin of a cathedral city, revealing how pain, toothcare and life in the street – along with faith, threats and resistance – change and change again in unexpected ways. Autofiction that will set your teeth on edge!
A modern Canterbury tale propelled by dramatic incidents and disturbances which take place outside the gate over seven centuries – from the Peasant’s Revolt to the Blitz, from plagues and protests against the Corn Laws to rowdy mods on scooters in the sixties – packed with striking episodes drawing on the real and probable and at times the outlandish. After reading Toothpull, the last few yards of the ancient Pilgrim’s Way will never look the same again. Neither will your dentist. Nor will tired mainstream history fiction—its time is up.
Our judge Susanna Crossman writes:
A compelling experimental engagement with language and sound, Kevin Davey’s Toothpull of St. Dunstan (Aaaargh! Press) is a modern Canterbury tale. Recalling Woolf’s Orlando, but in the company of a disarming time-travelling dentist, we career through seven centuries, pain and molars, from a medieval barber-surgeon via the Corn Laws to soulless modern dentistry.
About Aaaargh! Press:
Aaaargh! consists of Paul Anderson and Anna Chen. They started by publishing themselves and their mates—but they’re not in the business of vanity publishing. As they expand they’ll be publishing more stuff that they like. They’re a shoestring operation, but they can run to producing an e-book every couple of months and a paperback every year or so with a bit of luck. And they do tasty deals on royalties.
Darryl by Jackie Ess, from Divided Publishing
Darryl Cook is a cuckold, and that’s exactly how he likes it. He has an inheritance that spares him from work, a manageable and seemingly consequence-free drug habit, and a lovely wife called Mindy who’s generally game for anything—and for as much of it as she can get. But after an accidental overdose and some serious oversharing, Darryl’s world begins to crack up. Tormented by what seems to be the secret truth in sex, and less assured of that secret’s form, Darryl steps into what used to be called real life . . . Darryl is a disarmingly funny and unabashedly intelligent look at a community of people parsing masculinity, marriage, sex (and love) on their own terms.
Our judge Marina Benjamin writes:
Jackie Ess’s novel offers a wry and brainy take on kink. White, middle-aged and full of angst, Darryl likes watching his wife have sex with other men, but then falls for one of them himself. Perhaps he’s gay, he thinks, or maybe he’s trans. Ess plays with the identity issues of the day in prose that is winningly transparent, questioning, clever, yet always light. It’s a delightful portrait of doubtful masculinity and of sexual encounter as a portal to self-discovery.
About Divided Publishing:
Divided Publishing is a publisher and literary press founded in 2019 and located in Brussels and London. The press publishes poetry, philosophy and cultural analysis, legal studies, translations, and inter-genre books. The press has published new work by acclaimed writers and thinkers such as Fanny Howe, Joy James, and Jamieson Webster.
Spit by David Brennan, from époque press
Welcome to the village of Spit, where Danny Mulcahy is losing the run of himself, and where, as he and his friends dream of escaping, an unexpected death sets the rumour mill into motion.
Suffering an unexplained, perpetual banishment, the Spook of Spit is watching everyone and everything – nothing goes unnoticed. Bearing witness to the village’s half-truths and suppressed secrets, fragments of its own dark and obscured history are unveiled.
As events spiral out of control, the past, present and future are set to collide. Can there be redemption for past deeds? How do you escape when you are fated to remain? What does it take to break free from the confines of Spit?
Our judge Stu Hennigan writes:
A wonderfully warm, funny and inventive work that deploys an ingenious narrative sleight-of-hand to allow an omniscient, supernatural entity to observe the all-too-human existence of the inhabitants of a tiny Irish village.
About époque press:
époque press is an independent publisher based in Brighton, and was established to promote and represent the very best in new literary talent. Through a combination of their main publishing imprint and their online é-zine they bring inspirational and thought provoking work to a wider audience.
Their main imprint brings to publication new voices and authors who are producing high-quality literary fiction. Their é-zine showcases a combination of the written word, and other art forms, bringing together artists working in different mediums to encourage and inspire new perspectives on specific themes.
The First Jasmines by Saima Begum, from Hajar Press
East Pakistan, 1971. On their way to visit their mother, two sisters, Lucky and Jamila, are captured by Pakistani soldiers and thrown into a world of horror.
Locked in a room in an unknown village-turned-camp by the river, the women look through a lone barred window onto white jasmines blooming day and night. Meanwhile, around the camp, deadly guerrilla fighters from the Bengali Mukti Bahini gather to take back territory from the Pakistan Army.
As Bangladesh crowns painfully into the world, Lucky and Jamila must choose between heartbreak and secrecy to return from an unspoken violence.
Our judge Susanna Crossman writes:
The First Jasmines by Saima Begum is a fiercely lyrical debut novel, recounting the devastating untold story of Birangona—women kidnapped and raped by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. An extraordinary work of vivid prose, unforgettable characters and visceral detail, spirit burns bright through these pages.
About Hajar Press
Founded in 2020 by Brekhna Aftab and Farhaana Arefin, Hajar Press is an independent and proudly political publishing house by and for people of colour. With a focus on creative experimentation, they publish books by writers with original and transformative ways of seeing and remaking the world, from novels and short stories to poetry and essays. They’re interested in writing that reflects how politics are lived and felt, whether conveying histories of resistance passed down generations, or embodying how the future is prefigured and enacted today. In short, they publish beautiful, revolutionary books that move them to think, feel, dream and imagine anew.
The Weasel and the Whore by Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas, translated by Julia Sanches and Jennifer Shyue, from Héloïse Press
A grim underground portrait of today’s Cuba, where young people struggle to shake off the vestiges of Castroism.
From Monday to Saturday, Mary is a young and talented artist in the artistic, bohemian and fringe circles of Havana. But on Sundays, Mary becomes the sex toy of a high official of the regime. Her condition as a woman and artist, bisexual and alienated from Castroism, inevitably pushes her towards social exclusion, and Mary begins to need a strong reason to remain in Cuba.
Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas is one of the most important new Cuban writers. With this novel she brings us the story of a rebellious and angry generation fighting to escape the vestiges of Castroism.
Our judge Marina Benjamin writes:
A slantwise take on Cuba, post-Castro. An exploration of disaffected youth in a culture that’s ossified. A roaring, raging novel of grief over heartless mothers and a sick society still in thrall to the old regime. In short chapters rendered as stylish outbursts, Hernández Cadenas’s narrator hurtles through her days falling in and out of love and friendship, the heat and mischief of the action broken only by her bizarre sexual arrangement with ‘R’ who embodies the rot of the revolutionary old-guard from whose clutches she is desperate to free herself.
About Héloïse Press:
Héloïse Press champions world-wide female talent. Héloïse’s careful selection of books gives voice to emerging and well-established female writers from home and abroad. With a focus on intimate, visceral and powerful narratives, Héloïse Press brings together women’s stories and literary sophistication.
Mistress Koharu by Noboru Tsujihara, translated by Kalau Almony, from Honford Star
An obsessive Tokyoite Pygmalion—thrilling and provocative literary fiction from a leading Japanese author.
Akira, a meticulous editor at a major publishing house in Tokyo, harbors a secret: he lives with Koharu, a Hungarian-made love doll. Each night, he speaks to her and finds a long-sought solace in her presence—a comfort he cannot attain even in the arms of real women in his life. Things only improve when Koharu breaks free from her role as a love doll and starts speaking and moving on her own, transformed into the perfect wife.
But when a new woman enters Akira’s life, everything changes. A single confession to Koharu about his attraction sets off a chain of disturbing events that spiral into the unexpected.
Our judge Marina Benjamin writes:
Noboru Tsjuhara is a celebrated voice in Japan and his first novel to be translated into English is a feast of clever cultural references and twisty plotting. A four-square play for power and love, it subjects a salaryman who fancies himself a philosopher and cineaste to the singular pursuit of three women—one of them a vivified sex-doll. It is a novel that circles headily around desire and frustration, intellect and attraction, and the cruelties of love.
About Honford Star:
Honford Star is committed to bridging literary worlds, celebrating the richness of East Asian literature. Their goal is to respect the authenticity and diversity of these narratives, bringing them to a global audience through collaborative partnerships with skilled translators, artists, and designers.
Ghost Driver by Nell Osborne, from Moist Books
Malory walks home after an ordinarily gruelling night out, having escaped the company of her associates. Something ripples in the darkness. The shape of a figure. So begins a chain of events with the texture of dream plasma. A story of persecution mania. Professional ignominy. A sudden disappearance. The terror of seeing oneself too clearly...
Our judge Stu Hennigan writes:
A shape-shifting gem powered by an effortlessly hip voice that crackles with restless energy. Its boundary-blurring blending of the personal with the political, and the uncanny with the mundane, is as beguiling and fresh as modern fiction gets.
About Moist Books:
Moist Books is an independent publisher based between Nottingham and London. They publish writing that emerges from profound unease, dissatisfaction, or disgust with the present. While sometimes their books take form as works of fiction or poetry or memoir, they are principally concerned with writing at the fringes: texts that seek to counter neat or industrialised distinctions between genres, categories and forms. Some of their titles are arousing; others are bleak. They like bold covers.
On the Greenwich Line by Shady Lewis, translated by Katharine Halls, from Peirene Press
In an East London housing office, a frustrated local government employee spends his days trying to figure out what the latest policy announcement means for both himself and the migrants he works with every day. As a favour to a friend, he finds himself roped into organizing the funeral of Ghiyath, a young Syrian refugee. But it is not until his life collides with Ghiyath’s death that he realises just how much he has in common with those who’ve fallen through the cracks.
Told with a wry cynicism and deadpan wit, On the Greenwich Line traces the absurdities of racism, austerity, and bureaucracy in contemporary England. This is a story about systemic failure and human courage, and about London and its many lost souls.
Our judge Susanna Crossman writes:
A deft, Kafkaesque meander through the streets of London, On the Greenwich Line (Peirene Press) by Shady Lewis is an intriguing, cinematographically-paced novel. Through the eyes of unnamed Coptic Christian immigrant, we confront a deeply accurate deadpan examination of contemporary England’s bleak, farcical bureaucracy, racism and inequality: wry absurdity in the face of life and death.
About Peirene Press
Peirene Press is an independent publishing house based in Bath. Established by the novelist and journalist Meike Ziervogel, Peirene publishes literary fiction in translation from all over the world. Their books are regularly listed for significant UK literary and translation prizes, including the International Booker Prize, and in 2023 they won the International Dublin Literary Award with Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp, translated from German by Jo Heinrich.
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson, from Small Axes/HopeRoad
In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died. The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?
Our judge Stu Hennigan writes:
A dense and powerful novel for our times that examines how political and public discourse is allowed to frame the plight of refugees as an administrative problem while studiously ignoring the devastating reality of their lives.
About Small Axes/HopeRoad:
HopeRoad was founded in 2010 by Rosemarie Hudson, who has always wanted to encourage, mentor and publish exciting new authors. Her emphasis has been to promote writing from and about Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, many in translation for the first time, and HopeRoad is now well known within the industry as a publisher of previously untold stories – superb stories in themselves, which also feature themes of identity, cultural stereotyping, disability and injustice.
Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group by Rebecca Gransden, from Tangerine Press
In the midst of an apocalyptic event of unknown provenance – a mass of red spreading north from the southern counties – a young girl sets out on a journey. Along the way she encounters a series of eccentric characters, the few left behind in the wake of a widespread evacuation. Some of these individuals are ravaged and on the edge of death, while others are immersed in their own hermetic practices, be they solipsistic, nihilistic, or otherwise. None wish to engage for more than the brief time necessary to offer their meagre assistance. There is talk of ‘anti-spores’, pools of blood, and of a hum spreading through communication wires. The hum has altered the very appearance of written language, pushing words apart, leaving only single syllables behind. This constraint is present in the third-person narration we read but is removed during periods of dialogue. This results in a rhythmic, chantlike flow to the prose. As with the best of work that employs the tropes of apocalyptic fiction, Rebecca Gransden’s unusual novella ends with many of its questions floating in the scarlet haze it generates, leaving them for the reader to ponder in the wake of what is surely a singular literary experience.
Our judge Stu Hennigan writes:
A work of breathtaking originality in form, style and execution. Gransden’s startling stylistic innovations create a language that’s familiar and alien in equal measure, a soon-to-come Newspeak stripped back to the bare bones while recalling the ancient alliterative poetry of the Anglo-Saxons.
About Tangerine Press:
Tangerine Press has been publishing misfits, mavericks and misanthropes since 2006. They put out titles in numerous formats: handbound, hardcover, limited editions; handsewn chapbooks; broadsides; art prints and occasional ephemera, as well as more readily available trade paperbacks where possible. They have been known to dabble in 1970s pornography and the occasional bookburning too. Tangerine champions work by authors who often exist on the fringes of society.
Each longlisted press will receive £500 and an offer of PR surgery from our partners Tiger Team Creative. The longlisted presses and/or authors will also be offered the opportunity to appear at festivals and bookshops to talk about their experiences with the prize.
The shortlist will be announced mid-March with details tbc. Each shortlisted press will receive a further £1000, to be split 70% to the press and 30% to the writer (and the translator if applicable).
The overall winner will be announced at an event at Queen Mary University, London, Wednesday 25th March, 2026.
The winning title won’t just get the glory this year. The writer (or their translator where applicable) will receive a 5-day writing retreat at the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking.
Thanks again to every press that submitted to the prize. To those who were longlisted, best of luck for the shortlist. For those who weren’t, keep subscribed for the dates of next year’s prize.