#99 A Slow Sunday Scroll ☕️
girlbossification of AI, storyteller award + is it ok to LOVE work?
This Sunday Scroll is free to read—as it is brought to you by the 10th Kindle Storyteller Award.
I think there should be more prizes and opportunities for self-published writers, so I’m excited to share this one: the Kindle Storyteller Award which is now open—where one writer can win a £20,000 prize fund. It was first launched in 2016, to celebrate the best self-published story of the year and champion independent writers, and it’s open to both debut and established writers across any genre – including fiction and non-fiction.
Having judged the Women’s Prize last year, I have seen up close how prizes change the course of a writer’s life. Previous winners of the Kindle Storyteller Award include bestselling Scottish writer JD Kirk, whose latest release, Recall, is being narrated by James McAvoy on Audible and Pip Landers-Letts, whose LGBTQ+ romance novel Pyg, a retelling of the classic Pygmalion, stunned the judges in 2025. Other winners have been able to leave their day jobs to write full-time.
It’s in its 10th year, and the award looks to find its next winner. I am currently using Kindle Direct Publishing to bring A Year of Nothing to readers worldwide—and if you are an author who publishes their work in English through KDP between now and 31st August 2026 then why not enter! The winner will receive the prize fund plus marketing support in or around their hometown, and each of the five chosen shortlisted authors will receive a special limited-edition print edition of their book.
For further information, visit here. The winner will be announced in October 2026. Good luck!
All titles must be enrolled in Kindle Select while they are in the competition. Entrants must be aged 18 or over. Writers must enter their own unpublished story via Kindle Direct Publishing by 31st August. [Ad]
Every other Sunday, I share a curated mix of joyful links—books, podcasts, articles—in these ‘Sunday Scrolls’, read by 80,000+ people.
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Recent popular posts on The Hyphen, in case you missed it:
Over to this week’s Slow Sunday Scroll Picks…
— The Girlbossification of AI
— What Actually Sells Books
— Madeline Cash on writing and writer’s block
— The world’s best hotel breakfasts
— The lost empress of the tarot
— This Is Why I Find Pema Chödrön So Essential
— Ann Patchett regrets signing up for email
— Can AI write literature and get away with it?
— Like “Miranda Priestly,” I Love to Work. Don’t You?
— 40 Things Lena Dunham Wants To Do After Forty
— The Towpath Café reopens for a new season
— The publishing house with its own beguiling story
— We Need to Talk About Bad Writing
— A summer reading list matched to the trip you’re taking
— Coco Mellors’ month of solitude in London
~ I also shared my ‘8 Desert Island Books’ on Lucy Pearson’s Substack here!
~ I was interviewed by Emily Ash Powell’s The Hurdling Substack here!
— The Lonely City by Olivia Laing. I’m also very excited to see her discuss the 10 year anniversary for the book at The Union Chapel soon.
— I can’t wait to receive Ella Risbridger’s new book The Kitchen Book (a good piece on India Knight’s substack about it too, here.)
— A Real Piece of Work by Freya Bromley. It’s a book inside a book, and a very clever one at that. I really loved it. Freya writes about the messy side of family, relationships and being human very well.
— Hannah Murray’s The Make-Believe is one of the most addictive memoirs I’ve read for a long time. She is best known for her acting roles in Skins and Game of Thrones. A compelling mental health memoir about spiritual cults, vulnerability, and fame. (There’s an interview with Hannah on the Women’s Prize pod here).
— Richard Bacon has a new podcast called “Why Are You More Successful Than Me?” and he’s a good interviewer (actually asks direct questions) which feels rare these days.
— Writer Freya Bromley has a new podcast about writing and creating things. It’s launching soon (and I’m a guest!)
— This episode about the two halves of life with Brené Brown and Richard Rohr.
— My friend Bec Evans has launched a brilliant podcast called This Might Work all about practical tips and ‘creative experiments’. (I feature on episode #2)!
— An interesting and honest podcast episode with Sophia Amoruso about the post-girlboss era.
— Dr. Lisa Miller on Neuroscience, Synchronicity, and Healing.
— The Martin Short documentary on Netflix. Truly soul-enriching; an example of finding joy even in the darkest of times. (And this interview with Martin Short is lovely.)
— A wonderful home tour of Rebeka Russell, founder of Manderley Press—of her historic 1868 London home filled with books.
— I had a fantastic ‘energy reset’ coaching session with my friend Selina Barker. For £150, you get an energy audit and 60-minute virtual session. It really made a difference to figuring out how to use my energy more wisely. Book your session here. It’s so important, isn’t it — to figure out what drains you and what energises you.
— My dear friend Abigail Bergstrom has just launched The Bone Project — a three-day psychotherapeutic writing program in Lisbon.
— I LOVE this jewellery case for travelling—and this mini case from Shrimps.
Happy weekend! Do hit the ❤️ if you enjoyed this post :)
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