Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers

Select Date

Applications

Start Date

16th Nov 2026

End Date

31st Aug 2027

Application Deadline

9th Nov 2026

Applicant Notification

13th Nov 2026

Price on Acceptance

£0

Apply Now

Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers

Length

9 months

Location

Online

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Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers

Two talented disabled writers will receive nine months of mentoring from a published author, plus a tutorial with a literary agent.

Tutor

Polly Atkin

Tutor

Lisette Auton

Tutor

Nydia Hetherington

Tutor

Chloe Timms

Tutor

Claire Wade

Length

9 months

Location

Online

This free mentoring opportunity is funded by our Breakthrough Writers' Programme.

This nine-month mentoring programme is part of the Breakthrough Writers' Programme – our outreach initiative for under-represented authors.

This mentoring will run from November 2026 to August 2027 and seeks to support two aspiring authors through one-to-one guidance from a published author-mentor, plus a tutorial with a literary agent.

Mentoring sessions will take place via Zoom/phone calls. We are able to make accessibility adjustments to the programme if required. For example, by providing a British Sign Language interpreter.

You can apply to be mentored for a project at any stage of writing (from just starting to redrafting) and written in any of the following genres/categories:

Novel written for adults
Novel written for children (older than 7) or young adults
Collection of short stories
Memoir
Narrative non-fiction

View full mentoring programme details

Stories of disability and trauma are so often rendered invisible in our media and literary landscapes. But being mentored to develop my memoir was incredibly supportive and encouraging. Getting a place on this scheme has been transformative, both for my life and my book.

Grace Quantock
Author of Living Well with Chronic Illness

Mentors

You’ll be matched with an acclaimed author with expertise in your genre/style of writing, who will be your individual mentor.

Polly Atkin

Polly Atkin (FRSL) is a poet and nonfiction writer. She has published three poetry pamphlets and two collections – Basic Nest Architecture (Seren: 2017) and Much With Body (Seren: 2021). Her nonfiction includes Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth (Saraband: 2021), a Barbellion-longlisted biography of Dorothy’s later life and illness, and a memoir exploring place, belonging and disability, Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better (Sceptre: 2023). She works as a freelancer from her home in the English Lake District.

Photo by Alex Muir.

Lisette Auton

Lisette Auton works with words in all their forms: as an author and playwright, a film and theatre maker, a performer, a solo artist, with collaborators, and alongside wonderful humans as a creative practitioner and mentor. Disabled, neurodivergent and northern, some say she’s a word artist, she says she does stuff with words. Her debut middle grade novel The Secret of Haven Point was published by Puffin in February 2022, The Stickleback Catchers followed in February 2023, with Lights Up forthcoming in spring 2024. She is an award-winning poet; the 2019 Early Careers Fellow for Literature at Cove Park; on the TSS Publishing list of Best British & Irish Flash Fiction; and winner of The Journal Culture Award 2021 for Performance of the Year for Writing the Missing – A River Cycle commissioned by Durham Book Festival.

Nydia Hetherington

Nydia moved to London in her early twenties to embark on an acting career, then to Paris, where she continued her theatre training before creating a theatre company and becoming a clown. Returning to London almost a decade later, she worked in a shoe shop while studying for a Creative Writing degree. During this time, after months of debilitating pain, Nydia was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her debut novel, A Girl Made of Air, a book steeped in Manx folk lore, circus magic, and the terrors of humanity, came out in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. The book went on to be nominated for The Guardian's Not The Booker Prize. Her second novel, Sycorax was published in February 2025, and has been shortlisted for The Wibur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. It is the story of Shakespeare’s silenced witch from The Tempest and a feminist exploration of Caliban’s much maligned mother, seen through the prism of chronic illness.

Chloe Timms

Chloe Timms is a writer, campaigner and podcast host from the Kent coast. After a career in teaching, Chloe studied for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Kent and won a scholarship at the Faber Academy. Chloe is passionate about disability rights, having been diagnosed with the condition Spinal Muscular Atrophy at 18 months old, and has campaigned on several crucial issues. In 2022 Chloe launched her podcast Confessions of a Debut Novelist. The Seawomen is her first novel.

Claire Wade

Claire Wade is a disabled author, speaker and activist. She founded Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses (ADCI) in conjunction with the Society of Authors. The group connects and supports disabled authors and works towards better access and inclusivity within the publishing industry.

Claire has twice guest edited The Bookseller, the business magazine for the UK publishing industry. She used the opportunity to speak directly to editors, agents and publishers about the obstacles facing disabled authors and how they can be overcome.

Claire’s first novel The Choice (Orion, 2019) won the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition and the East Anglian Book Award for Fiction.

In 2023, she won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Inclusion Award.

www.clairewade.com

Eligibility

This round of mentoring is open to all disabled writers over the age of 18.

Applicants must have a disability, as defined by the Equality Act 2010. You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

Our form asks you to make a statement about why you should be awarded this mentoring opportunity.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Applicants to the Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers must fulfil our eligibility criteria.
Applicants must not be currently represented by a literary agent.

Ready to apply?

Curtis Brown Creative offers mentoring places on the basis of proven writing ability. We ask applicants to send us the first 3,000 words of a novel/memoir/short story/narrative non-fiction project in progress, with a one-page synopsis, and to fill out our application form. Mentoring places will be awarded to applicants with submission material that shows the greatest potential and promise in our view. The decision will be made by the Curtis Brown Creative team.

Our application process is simple, and we encourage all writers meeting the eligibility criteria to apply.

Don’t worry if you have little or nothing to say in response to questions about e.g. writing experience or employment. Just fill out the form, upload your work and we’ll be in touch soon.

The deadline for applications is Monday 9 November, and we will respond to applicants by Friday 13 November.

If you encounter any problems during the application process or have any more questions about this opportunity, please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.ukfor assistance.

Head to the blog for tips and advice on preparing your application material.

Application advice

Select Date

Applications

Start Date

16th Nov 2026

End Date

31st Aug 2027

Application Deadline

9th Nov 2026

Applicant Notification

13th Nov 2026

Price on Acceptance

£0

Apply Now

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