The Observer's debut novelists of 2026

Invited experts

Tom Gatti

Literary Editor

Sufiyaan Salam

Stephanie Sy Quia

Sam Beckbessinger

Rebecca Perry

Lucy Apps

Liz Allan

Jon Doyle

Jem Calder

Tom Gatti

Literary Editor

Stephanie Sy Quia

Rebecca Perry

Liz Allan

Jem Calder

Sufiyaan Salam

Sam Beckbessinger

Lucy Apps

Jon Doyle

The Observer’s annual debut novelists list is your essential guide to the literary world’s rising stars. Over more than a decade, it has identified blazing talents such as Sally Rooney and Douglas Stuart at the very beginning of their careers - shaping reading habits, setting literary trends, and launching remarkable new voices.

This year, after reading nearly 90 first novels, The Observer’s editors and critics have come up with their squad of the eight most inventive and distinctive new voices in fiction. They include: a poet tracing their grandparents’ footsteps from Staffordshire to Libya; a GP writing about a teenage girl with learning difficulties; a schoolteacher reliving their wayward, Kurt Cobain-idolising youth in Australia in the 90s; a science graduate who switched from zoology to fiction.

Join us in The Observer newsroom for an exclusive evening with these eight unmissable authors - a celebration for subscribers, readers, and the literary world’s most curious minds. Meet the new names shaping fiction’s future and discover the stories behind their extraordinary debuts.

Enjoy up to 15% off when you order a copy of the debut novels by these authors from observershop.co.uk. Free delivery on UK orders over £25.