Michael Joseph PenguinRandomHouse Crime Party 2025

 

The Shots Magazine team of Blogger Ayo Onatade accompanied by Editors Mike Stotter and Ali Karim were delighted to accept invitations to the 2025 Michael Joseph annual crime fiction party, hosted in The Crypt at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square,. London.  

We have been attending for many years now, previewing the forthcoming crime fiction publications that would be released by this important imprint of the PenguinRandomHouse group.

Previous reports remain archived, here for 2019, and video footage from 2018 Joel Richardson's welcoming speech - 

....and  2017 as well as a video collage from 2008 -

The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue & Publishing Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE OR click the link below >

https://www.penguin.co.uk/about/publishing-houses/penguin-michael-joseph

2025 marks the 90^th anniversary of the formation of Penguin Publishing.

Michael Joseph was a bestselling author before he turned publisher in 1935 – the same year Penguin paperbacks were launched. In 1985, exactly half a century after their mutual founding, Michael Joseph became the commercial imprint of Penguin Books.

So it was a delight to chat to Penguin’s Publishers Rowland White and Joel Richardson together with Deputy Publicity Director Gaby Young and her colleagues – who we thanked for throwing a wonderful party as ever – a far cry from the days of The Union Club in Soho, where Rowland would stand precariously on a rickety chair to welcome the guests to the Penguin Michael Joseph annual soiree.

We were delighted to learn that Steve Mosby’s alter ego is coming to film featuring Robert De Niro and directed by James Ashcroft –

What is The Whisper Man about?

Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by North: When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as “The Whisper Man.”

Read More HERE

We feature and array of photos for the event as we mingled with the Penguin authors and their Editorial and Publicity teams – and many colleagues from the London Literary scene.

To plan your own crime and thriller reading, download the Penguin schedule HERE

Shots Magazine would like to thank Rowland White, Joel Richardson and Gaby Young for inviting us to the 2025 Penguin MJ Crime Party.

 

The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue & Publishing Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE

Penguin Michael Joseph Launches New Prize

 

Penguin Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Random House, have today (Friday 23rd September 2022) revealed details of their new writers’ prize, following PMJ MD Louise Moore announcing that it was in the pipeline as part of her keynote speech at London Book Fair earlier this year.

The Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize aims to find new authors from underrepresented backgrounds who the division can bring to the widest possible readership. 

The inaugural prize (2022/2023) focusses on the crime and thriller genre, with budding writers being invited to submit tales of mysteries, crimes, jeopardy, action or adventure. 

The prize is aimed at unpublished writers aged over 18 who are currently a resident in the UK or ROI, and who are from a background that’s currently underrepresented in publishing – that includes ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, disability or socio-economic background.

Entries – which initially need to be submitted as a 200 word synopsis and 2000 word extract – will be judged by a panel of judges led by PMJ’s Crime and Thriller publisher Joel Richardson. 

He said,

‘We’re so excited to be launching this new prize, seeking out the brightest and best new voices in a genre I absolutely love. I hope it inspires people who have always daydreamed about writing a book to finally give it a go, and I also hope it plays a role in broadening the range of voices we see in crime/thriller writing – the UK’s biggest book genre.’ 

Joel’s fellow judges are: bestselling author Amy McCulloch; award-winning freelance crime fiction critic/commentator, moderator and blogger Ayo Onatade; Waterstones’ Head of Fiction Bea Carvalho; award-winning bookseller, owner of Goldsboro Books and MD and agent at D H H Literary Agency, David Headley, and Syima Aslam, the founder and Director of the Bradford Literature Festival - the most socio-economically and ethnically diverse literary festival in the UK.

The winner of the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize will receive a publishing contract with PMJ, worth at least £10,000, and representation by the DHH Literary Agency. All shortlisted writers will also receive one-to-one editorial feedback and guidance from an editor or agent. 

Applications will open on 30th September and should be submitted via

https://www.penguin.co.uk/penguin-michael-joseph-undiscovered-writers-prize. All further details and T&Cs can also be found here https://www.penguin.co.uk/undiscovered-writers-prize-faqs

The deadline for submissions is 30th November 2022, and the winner of the Prize is due to be announced in August 2023.