Two novels, a collection of poetry, and a volume of interlinked short stories make up the shortlist for the £5,000 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser and Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award.

Works by Sarah Howe, Ben Fergusson, Sunjeev Sahota and Sara Taylor were chosen by judges Peter Kemp and Andrew Holgate of The Sunday Times and former winner of this prize Sarah Waters.

Shortlist

Ben Fergusson – The Spring of Kasper Meier (Abacus)

Sarah Howe – Loop of Jade (Chatto)

Sunjeev Sahota – The Year of the Runaways (Picador)

Sara Taylor – The Shore (Heinemann)

Ben Fergusson won the 2015 SoA Betty Trask Award, Sarah Howe was an Eric Gregory Award recipient in 2010 and this year was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Sunjeev Sahota was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and Sara Taylor was longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015.

On 10 December the winner will be presented with £5,000, with the runners-up each receiving £500. In the meantime you can read more about the shortlist – and enjoy samples of the books – on the Sunday Times website.

You can also meet some of the shortlistees alongside previous winners at an event in Foyle’s Charing Cross on 23 November.  

The Award is administrated by the Society of Authors.