Marcia Hutchinson’s Debut Novel “The Mercy Step” Longlisted For 2026 Women’s Prize For Fiction
Marcia Hutchinson’s debut novel The Mercy Step, published by Cassava Republic Press, has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The book tells the story of Mercy, a precocious British-Jamaican girl born into a world that feels far too big for her small body — into a home run by an angry, violent […]
Black News 
Marcia Hutchinson’s debut novel The Mercy Step, published by Cassava Republic Press, has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
The book tells the story of Mercy, a precocious British-Jamaican girl born into a world that feels far too big for her small body — into a home run by an angry, violent father and a devout mother, both Windrush migrants from Jamaica. She craves her mother’s attention, which she must share with the Church and her many siblings, while the whole family live at the whims of their father’s temper.
But Mercy is nothing if not resilient. She finds joy and escapism in books, in learning, and in the loyal company of her doll Dolly. She is determined to overcome her upbringing — no matter what it takes.
Raw, tender, and often extremely funny, The Mercy Step is a debut novel informed by the author’s own experience as a child of Windrush generation parents. It announces Marcia Hutchinson as an unmistakable new voice in literary fiction.
Hutchinson was born to Windrush generation Jamaican parents in the UK in 1962. She was the first pupil from her comprehensive school to go to Oxford, where she gained an MA in Law. She worked as a lawyer before founding the educational publishing company Primary Colours, which she ran until 2014. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to cultural diversity. Moving to Manchester in 2012, she became a community activist and was elected as a Labour councillor in 2021. She is now a full-time writer and an active member of the Black Writers’ Guild.
The critical success of The Mercy Step is proving to be vindication for Hutchinson, whose manuscript had been turned away by fifty publishers before Cassava Republic picked it up.
“From the very first pages, I knew this was something extraordinary. Mercy’s voice — so alive, so precise, so achingly real — is one that stays with you. The fact that fifty publishers passed on this novel only deepened my conviction that we had to publish it. This is exactly what Cassava Republic is here to do: to find the stories that others overlook, and to give them the platform they deserve”, said Layla Mohamed, Senior Editor at Cassava Republic Press.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most successful, influential, and popular literary prizes in the world, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers. The Prize was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect, and reverence given to women writers compared with their male peers, creating a platform for exceptional writing by women to shine. It is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven.
This year’s Women’s Prize shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 22nd April 2026. The winner will be revealed on 11 June at a summer party in Bedford Square Gardens, London.
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