ECW Press is proud to announce the results of our Best New Speculative Novel Contest, as judged by editors Jen R. Albert and Terese Mason Pierre.
With over 170 entries to the contest, it was a difficult decision; there was so much great work to choose from. In the end, we’re so pleased to reveal that the winner of the contest was Toronto-based author Andrew Wilmot with their novel Withered. In this speculative horror novel, non-binary student Ellis moves with their mother to the disquieting town of Black Stone after reaching a low point with their mental health only to find themselves living on the town’s most haunted property, embroiled in a decades-long spectral war.
Andrew Wilmot (BFA, MPub) is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and painter. They have won awards for screenwriting and short fiction, with credits including myriad online and in-print publications and anthologies. Andrew is also on the editorial advisory board for Poplar Press, the speculative fiction imprint of Wolsak & Wynn, and is co-editor-in-chief of the two-time Ignyte-nominated magazine Anathema: Spec from the Margins. The Death Scene Artist, their debut novel, was released in 2018 under Wolsak & Wynn’s Buckrider Books imprint.
ECW Press obtained world rights to the book in a deal negotiated by Kelvin Kong at K2 Literary. We look forward to sharing Withered with the world in spring 2024.