November SPOTLIGHT on the 2022 Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction

November brings insight, reflection, and contemplation of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. As the year winds down, so, too, we reflect and ponder what we have done, who we are, and who we would like to be.

It’s a perfect time to curl up with a good novel, you know, the type that grabs you and lives with you long after you put it down.

This is why we celebrate novels that are literary, satirical, and contemporary. This is why we celebrate the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards – Somerset Literary Novels Writing Competitions. 

We chose William Somerset Maugham because we love his work and love what he has to say about it:

“I am a made writer. I do not write as I want to; I write as I can… I have had small power of imagination… no lyrical quality… little gift of metaphor I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed.” W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham was a British author who wrote plays and short stories and novels. He was a dashing and daring man who did not wish to follow the other men in his family to practice law. Imagine, an individual in the Victorian Era… He was born on January 25, 1874, in Paris (at the British Embassy) and died on December 16th, 1965, in Nice, France. 

During the First World War, our Somerset proved his valor by serving with the Red Cross in the ambulance corps (remember his earlier medical training) and was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service right before the October Revolution in 1917.

Somerset dove into medicine and was fairly good at it until he wrote his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897) and all bets were off. The book flew off the shelves and people were reportedly wrestling in the streets for copies to gift their loved ones. (*Creative license at work – however, you don’t know that this did not happen…) He was known to say, “I took to it (writing) as a duck takes to water.”

At the age of sixty-six, he had to flee with only a suitcase from the encroaching Nazis as they advanced across Europe. He escaped to England and then on to South Carolina, in the U.S. where he continued to work on the screenplay for Razor’s Edge. He moved to Hollywood and then eventually back to France.

Did we mention that W. Somerset Maugham was repudiated to be the highest-paid author of the 1930s?

It’s obvious why we chose Somerset to represent our Literary & Contemporary Fiction Awards!

Submit your novel or manuscript to our Somerset Awards today! 

Here is a listing of the Somerset Book Awards Hall of Fame Winners!

The 2018 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Hard Cider – a novel by Barbara A. Stark-Nemon

Abbie Rose Stone is a woman determined to follow her newly discovered dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider while navigating the ups and downs of family life with her grown sons and husband.

Abbie Rose knows how to deal with adversity, and dives headfirst into this new chapter of her life with energy and passion. She describes her early adulthood years of infertility struggles and the hardscrabble way she built her young family through invasive medical procedures, a surrogate attempt, and adoption barriers.

The 2019 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

The Proprietor of Theatre Life by Donna LeClair

Still in progress, we’re excited to review Donna’s book when it comes out!

The 2020 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Gregory Erich Phillips for A Season in Lights

Gregory Erich Phillips’ A Season in Lights is a well-crafted, engaging exploration of creatives, each following their heart and trying to reach their dream.

Against backdrops of the 1980s AIDS crisis and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, the story entwines the lives of a 30-something dancer and an older musician as they strive to make their artistic mark in the cultural capital of New York City.

Here in a two-fold unveiling, the story comes to life from the first-person perspective of Cammie, a starry-eyed aspiring dancer from Lancaster, PA, and the third-person reveal of Tom, a more seasoned black pianist. He longs for a classical career but is too often labeled a jazz musician. Cammie first encounters Tom in a studio dance class where he’s taken a job as the musical accompanist. Befriended by the gay dance instructor, Tom heeds the worldly advice offered about surviving in the Big Apple. “All you’ve got to do is convince people that you belong. You’ve got to tell them who you are before they tell you.”

The 2021 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Lies in Bone Natalie Symons

A review of Lies in Bone is forthcoming. However, we know you’ll love this intricate story told with beautifully tight control. A mystery lies at the heart of this book that has the feeling of a grown-up To Kill a Mockingbird meets Serial Production’s S-Town Podcast. Highly Recommended.