The Observer’s Debut Novelists 2026
Sun 26 Apr 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Every year, The Observer shines a light on the debut novelists whom they consider to be the rising stars of fiction writing – Louise Kennedy, Bonnie Garmus and Jo Browning Wroe are just a few of the novelists who soared to the top, and this year is no exception. We are delighted to present Stephanie Sy-Quia, Rebecca Perry and Jem Calder, three of this year’s rising stars of fiction.
Chaired by Tom Gatti, Literary Editor for The Observer.
Venue: Old Divinity School
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biographies
Stephanie Sy-Quia was born in 1995 and is based in London, where she teaches English in a secondary school. Her writing and criticism have been published in The Guardian, Granta, The TLS and others. She is a Ledbury Poetry Critic and has twice been shortlisted for the FT Bodley Head Essay Prize. Her debut poetry collection Amnion (2021) questions the roots of migration and colonialism, charting what it means to grow up in a family divided by geography, history and language. It won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and received a Somerset Maugham Award, was a Poetry Book Society Winter Recommendation, and was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio and RSL Ondaatje Prizes. Stephanie Sy-Quia is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award.
Rebecca Perry is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Beauty/Beauty and Stone Fruit, both published by Bloodaxe Books (2015, 2021), as well as four pamphlets. Her poetry has been shortlisted for awards including the T. S. Eliot Prize, and her first collection won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. Her first work of creative non-fiction, On Trampolining, was published by Makina Books in 2023.
Jem Calder was born in Cambridge, and lives and works in London. His fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly and Granta, and his debut short story collection, Reward System, was published by Faber in 2022
Chair Biography
Tom Gatti is Literary Editor for The Observer. He is the editor of Long Players: Writers on the Albums That Shaped Them, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. Tom is a former editor of the New Statesman.
