Spread the Word, London’s literature development agency, is delighted to announce There Is Only Narrative: Non-Fiction Demystified with the Eve White Literary Agency which aims to find and develop new Non-Fiction writers from backgrounds underrepresented in UK publishing. The programme addresses the challenging conditions of the non-fiction market with sustained craft and career development for new and emerging non-fiction authors.
There Is Only Narrative: Non-Fiction Demystified launches on 18 November 2025 with an online survey to writers to better understand barriers to writing Non-Fiction and what support they would like to see from the publishing and agenting industries. The survey includes a sign-up link to receive There Is Only Narrative: Getting Started with Writing a Non-Fiction Proposal a bespoke document written by the Eve White Literary Agency to support writers in developing a proposal for their book idea.
On Tuesday 9 December, 7pm, there will be a free online panel event with the editors Beth Eynon, Assallah Tahir and Shammah Banerjee, chaired by Eve White and Ludo Cinelli, which will explore the opportunities in the Non-Fiction market and demystify the processes of acquiring and commissioning Non-Fiction books.
Eve White says: “We have followed Spread the Word’s crucial work closely for many years and we are delighted to partner with them on this project. We aim for it to be a springboard for many future non-fiction classics.”
There will be three free online masterclasses in 2026 exploring different aspects of writing Non-Fiction. The workshops will be led by Damian Le Bas, author of The Stopping Places, Rae Earl, author of My Mad Fat Diary, and Eleanor Bruce and Lucilla Gray, authors of the forthcoming Things We Found in the Ground.
From April-June 2026 Spread the Word will be running a competition for disabled, working class upbringing, LGBTQIA+, low-income, and Black, Asian and Global Majority writers. The competition will select a cohort of six writers for further developmental support from Spread the Word and the Eve White Literary Agency, including a group session with Damian Le Bas.
Ludo Cinelli, Managing Director and Agent, says: “E.L. Doctorow wrote “There is really no fiction or non-fiction; there is only narrative.” We often find non-fiction overlooked in writer development programmes, but it is a genre essential to global narratives. We are excited to find those real-life stories that writers are dying to tell.”
Lucilla Gray and Eleanor Bruce, say: “All stories should have an opportunity to be told from underrepresented perspectives. We’re looking forward to sharing our experience as debut authors for our masterclass with There Is Only Narrative: Non-Fiction Demystified and hope to encourage others to pick up the pen and write their stories from unlikely or even muddy places.”
Bobby Nayyar, programme manager at Spread the Word, says: “We are delighted to be working with the Eve White Literary Agency and a fantastic range of non-fiction editors and authors. There is an urgent need for more investment into developing talented new writers in this space. We are excited to be working the team at Eve White and look forward to seeing what new writing comes out of it.”
For more information about the project please visit: https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/projects/there-is-only-narrative
Published 18 November 2025