At the recent Spread the Word Novel Pitch Competition, anthology author Jarred McGinnis was voted the “People’s Choice” for his recently completed novel, Pissing on Dolphins, an unusual coming of age story about a fatherless son growing up in Florida, USA – think Catcher in the Rye meets Geek Love.
Over 180 aspiring novelists, from all over the United Kingdom, submitted a short synopsis and a 2000-word extract. McGinnis and five others were short listed as finalists for the 25th of April event.
At the finale, a panel, including Juliette Mitchell from Penguin Books, Ellah Allfrey from Random House, Peter Straus from the Rogers, Coleridge and White Agency, Nii Ayikwei Parkes from Flipped Eye Publishing and Caroline McCarthy from the Literary Consultancy, critiqued each finalist’s excerpt and novel pitch. Professional Actors did a reading of the excerpts while the novelists read their pitch.
McGinnis came a close second to the panel prize and bagged the Audience’s Choice Award. The panellist Juliette Mitchell praised his performance on the Penguin UK website: “Well done to Jarred McGinnis, the audience’s thoroughly deserving champion.”
The award includes a fountain pen, a leather-bound writing journal and a professional reading of his novel by the Literary Consultancy.
Read more about his novel here.
