29th July, 2025

Announcing the writers chosen from our Fiction and Non-fiction Call-out

We’re excited to announce the three writers chosen to develop publications proposals for our Publications Sub-committee following our recent call-out for Fiction and Non-fiction books by writers with lived experience of racism, ableism and/or poverty. This project was generously supported by a Books Council of Wales’ 24/25 New Audiences Grant.

The Fiction and Non-Fiction Call-out Panel included Crystal Jeans, Polly Atkin and Abiola Bello as well as members of the Seren Books team. Nathan Abrams, Naomi Parsons and Katrina Moinet’s submissions, all novels, reflect a range of perspectives and captured the attention of the panel through the strength of their writing, creativity and uniqueness. They are now working closely with the team to further develop their ideas into full publication proposals.

The chance for the writers to be more hands on with this part of the submissions process – which normally takes place behind the scenes – is unique to this call-out and reflects our aim to openly share how we work.

Our publications proposals explore the book idea in greater detail with the aim of convincing the Publications Sub-committee and Seren Board to publish it. They support the development of the pitch by pushing the team and writer to make a case for the book idea’s creative and commercial potential within the context of our wider publications list.

Publications proposals include detail on the concept, the writer, the potential target and core reader, alignment with current publishing trends, project budget, design, marketing and perceived risks. They are a crucial step in making sure we publish books which are innovative, equitable, and engaging to a diverse and significant readership. They also open our team and writers up to positive critical scrutiny, as well as offering support from a range of industry experts before books are commissioned.

Our CEO Bronwen Price says: “We were thrilled that the Books Council of Wales recognised the need for greater transparency in publications processes and supported us to open the curtains on how commissioning decisions are made at Seren Books. Nathan, Naomi and Katrina are uniquely different talents and all offer fantastically original ideas for possible future titles. We look forward to presenting their completed proposals to our Publications Sub-committee over the coming months.”

Introducing the writers:

Nathan Abrams is a native North Londoner now living in North Wales. He teaches at Bangor University and has been involved in various project to raise awareness of the hidden history of Jews in Wales, which stretches back some 2,000 years.

Katrina Moinet is a writer from Ynys Môn. Katrina won the won Globe Soup Short Story and Flash Fiction prizes, was double-shortlisted in the Staunch International Book Prize and features in Mslexia Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024. Their debut pamphlet Portrait of a Young girl Falling (Hedgehog Press) was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2025.

Naomi Parsons was raised in the Welsh Borders, on a smallholding that was also home to goats, tipis and visiting New Age Travellers. She was briefly homeschooled, which consisted entirely of reading up a tree, and went on to study History of Art at Sussex University. Find her on Instagram @smoke_in_the_lanes.

We’re looking forward to working closely with each writer and can’t wait to champion their books in the not-too-distant future.