Eight authors in the running for the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award

The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the National Literacy Trust have announced the shortlist for the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award, which recognises the writer or author who has had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK over the past year.

The award was launched in 2016 by ALCS and the National Literacy Trust in honour of the best-selling crime author and literacy advocate Ruth Rendell, who passed away in 2015. Previous winners include Andy McNab, Cressida Cowell, and Chris Smith and Greg James. Tom Percival is the current holder.

The shortlisted authors are:

Rob Biddulph

Rob Biddulph is a British children’s author and illustrator. He began his career as an art director, working for publications such as The Observer Magazine and ShortList. Biddulph’s debut picture book, Blown Away, was published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2014. and won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize the following year. He has since published several other picture books, including GRRRRR!, Odd Dog Out, Sunk!, Kevin, and Show and Tell. In 2021, Biddulph published Dog Gone and Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City, the latter marking the start of a middle-grade illustrated fiction series. The sequel, Peanut Jones and the Twelve Portals, was released in 2022. His new series, The Last Wolf, has just published.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Biddulph launched the online initiative #DrawWithRob, providing free draw-along videos for children. The project gained widespread attention and led to a Guinness World Record for the largest online art lesson, achieved in May 2020 with over 45,000 participants.

Biddulph’s books have been translated into multiple languages and published internationally. In addition to the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, his titles have been shortlisted for awards such as the Kate Greenaway Medal and the British Book Awards.

Maisie Chan

Maisie Chan won the Branford Boase Award and the Jhalak Prize with her debut children’s novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths. Her recent novel Nate Yu’s Blast From the Past was also very well reviewed. She writes a young fiction series called Tiger Warrior and has written for the bestselling anthology The Very Merry Murder Club. Her first picture book, Chi Chi the Panda will be published by Hachette Children’s Books in June with another middle-grade book to come from Piccadilly Press in 2027.

Maz Evans

Maz Evans is the author of over fifteen books for children, including the bestselling Who Let the Gods Out series. Maz started out writing in journalism, working as a television critic as well as a feature writer. During the course of her career, she has written for several different national titles. Maz has also been a creative writing lecturer going on to found Story Stew, a creative writing programme that has made its way to different primary schools and literary festivals. She also founded Book Buddy, which works to get more books placed into various school libraries.

Nicola Garrard

Having taught English in secondary schools for twenty-three years, including fifteen years at an Islington comprehensive. Her first novel, 29 LOCKS, was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and the Mslexia Children’s Novel competition. Her YA novel On the Edge was published in 2025.

Garrard gives regular talks for schools, libraries and colleges, as well as prisons. Her words and poetry have been published in The Frogmore Papers magazine, IRON Press Publishing, Mslexia magazine, The Guardian and the Writers & Artists Yearbook Guide to Getting Published, and by the Poetry Book Society. She currently works at Minority Matters, a charity which aims to empower young people from isolated communities through engagement projects.

Laura Henry-Allain MBE

Laura Henry-Allain MBE is an award-winning international educationalist, storyteller, producer and consultant. She is the creator of the well-loved, award-winning, first Black British animation, JoJo and Gran Gran global series, developed and produced by CBeebies, and is the series producer. Laura has a new children’s animation in development.

Her bestselling children’s books include My Skin, Your Skin and My Family, Your Family. Her new book, Maya and Marley, centres on an Adventure Playground.

Laura is a board member of the Children’s Media Foundation and vice president of The British Association of Early Childhood Education.

Nathanael Lessore

Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, Southeast London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents.

His debut book Steady For This won the Branford Boase Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024. His second book King of Nothing won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2025 and the Shadowers Choice Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025. He is also the author of What Happens Online, and writes stories that show his Southeast London childhood as a funny, warm, adventurous world, in contrast to its general representations.

MC Grammar aka Jacob Mitchell

MC Grammar is the creation of award-winning teacher and rapper Jacob Mitchell, who went viral in 2019 after a video of him rapping popular children’s book The Gruffalo received over 5 million views. Having struggled in school himself, the father of two credits his discovery of books as his turning point with education. Jacob believes no child should be left behind, and that there needs to excitement, challenge, inclusion and, most importantly, fun in the classroom! The Adventures of Rap Kid (Gallery Kids) is his debut children’s series.

Piers Torday

Piers Torday is an award winning and bestselling writer for children, whose work has been translated into 14 languages and adapted for the stage. Books include The Last Wild trilogy (Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), There May Be a Castle and The Lost Magician series (Teach Primary Book Award). Plays include The Box of Delights and Christmas Carol (Wilton’s Music Hall). He co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists Over 60 and has been a judge for the Guardian Prize, the British Book Awards and the Costa Book Awards. Vampir (sic) adventures Midnight Treasure and its sequel Wolf Crown are out now and his latest book, Tree Thing was inspired by the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree.

Anyone can nominate an author for this prestigious, annual award to acknowledge the work they do outside of their expected duties.

The winner of the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award will be announced at a reception in London on 26 February 2026.