Screenwriter Thara Popoola has won Modern Stories: It Must Be Love 2026 for her novel-in-progress, Right Person, Wrong Timeline, Curtis Brown Creative announced.

J. D. Malle’s Deathborn: The Hidden Hearts and Violet E. Scott’s The Song Beneath Iron were named runners-up.

Now in its second year, Modern Stories is part of Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf and is hosted by Headline Eternal, with Curtis Brown Creative as this year’s partner. The prize supports emerging writers of romance fiction from Black, Asian, mixed-heritage and other minority ethnic backgrounds.

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Popoola emerged from a shortlist that also included Amara Ede’s The Benefits of Marriage, Aditi Nichani’s The Elegance of Rollercoasters and Yolanda Tang’s Fashionable Love.

The judging panel included Headline Eternal senior commissioning editor Soraya Bouazzaoui, Curtis Brown Creative’s Abby Parsons, authors Rufaro Faith Mazarura and Maame Blue, Book Lovers Bookshop founder Caden Armstrong, and Stylist senior writer Amy Beecham.

Beecham said narrowing the entries down to one winner and two runners-up was difficult given the quality of the submissions.

Popoola is a NAACP-nominated screenwriter and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree whose television credits include Sex Education, Queenie and Crongton. Right Person, Wrong Timeline is her debut novel-in-progress.

Speaking to Curtis Brown Creative after the win, Popoola described the recognition as “really, really encouraging”, particularly after feeling out of her depth while moving from screenwriting into fiction.

The novel grew from a collection of television ideas that Popoola had been unable to place elsewhere. It was initially conceived as genre-bending science fiction before her long-standing love of romantic comedies pulled the story in another direction.

She cited Octavia Butler as an influence for centering Black women in expansive worlds. She also named Jacqueline Wilson, whose books she read obsessively as a child before eventually deciding to write her own.

As winner, Popoola receives a £1,000 cash prize, a place on Curtis Brown Creative’s three-month Writing Your Novel course, editorial mentoring sessions, a meeting with Curtis Brown literary agent Sheila Crowley, and a hamper of romance titles.

Malle and Scott, the two runners-up, will each receive a place on one of Curtis Brown Creative’s five- or six-week courses, an editorial mentoring session, an introductory meeting with a Curtis Brown agent and a hamper of romance titles.

Malle, a Cameroonian-Swedish writer based in London, was previously shortlisted for the inaugural Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize and is a 2026 Black Girl Writers mentee.

Scott, who is entering creative writing for the first time, said the recognition felt surreal given the difficulties they experienced with reading and writing while growing up with undiagnosed ADHD.