Meet writer Charlene Allcott, a WriteNow mentee

Charlene was born and raised in London and now lives in Brighton. She works part-time as a carer for young people in a residential care home, as well as caring for her 3-year-old son who has autism.

Charlene is writing women’s fiction. Her book The List is about central character Martha losing her husband and her home in one weekend. Determined not to end up a single mum in a dead end job, she and her friends create a definitive list of what she requires in her perfect man.

Charlene is currently one of twelve writers taking part in a year-long editorial mentorship programme with Penguin Random House, after applying to our WriteNow programme in 2016. WriteNow aims to find, mentor and publish new writers from communities under-represented on the nation’s bookshelves. This includes writers from BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) or LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer) communities, writers who have a disability, or come from a socio-economically marginalised background.

Before being invited to the mentorship programme, Charlene was one of 150 who attended a WriteNow Insight Day, where writers are given a crash course in navigating the publishing industry and are given direct one-to-one feedback from a Penguin Random House editor.