There is a shelf of books everyone agrees are great and almost nobody finishes. The stories are fine — the stories are why we still know their names. The trouble is that they were written for someone else: a reader with more patience than us, different habits, and a stock of assumed knowledge that has quietly expired. The prose isn’t worse than ours. It’s just addressed elsewhere.
Phoenix is Curated Word’s imprint for bringing the great classics back to life. We publish contemporary retellings of public domain classics — rebuilt in modern English, modern structure, modern pacing, and modern sensibilities for readers who would love these books if they could get past the front door.
We have chosen the first list. We need the writers.
What we’re asking for
Pick up to three titles from the Phoenix list (shown at the bottom of this page). For each one, tell us what stands between it and a reader today — then show us what you’d do about it, by retelling a passage yourself.
We’re not looking for a summary, a modern-dress update, or a book report. We’re looking for a governing idea and the prose to carry it. The extract matters most. Write well and we will notice.
Enter for three, and we might commission you for three. There’s no cap. Each title is a separate contract with its own $1,500 advance and its own 15% — three books means $4,500 and three royalties, on staggered deadlines. That said, where entries are close we’d rather spread the books across more writers than pile them onto one. We’re trying to build a house, not a single-author imprint.
We should also say plainly: if the entries aren’t there, we won’t commission anything. Entering isn’t a promise of work, and we’d rather tell you that now than dress this up.
What you get if you win
You become a Phoenix House Author. That means:
- $1,500 advance, recoupable against royalties
- 15% of net receipts on your book, indefinitely
- Your name on the cover — [Title], retold by you — and in the metadata, permanently
- Full access to the Curated Word platform and our AI-assisted authoring tools, free, for the whole project
- A listing in the Curated Word Specialists Directory and a foot on the career ladder
- An editor, a schedule, and a book with your name on it.
What we take
Copyright in the finished book vests in Curated Word as publisher. We want to be blunt about that rather than bury it: you are being commissioned to write a book that we will own and sell, and you are paid an advance, a royalty, and a permanent credit for it. If that trade isn’t for you, it isn’t for you, and we’d rather you knew now than on page 40 of a contract.
The full House Author Agreement is published here before you enter. Read it. If we select you, we’ll contribute $250 towards your own lawyer looking at it, whether or not you end up signing.
Who can enter
English, literature and creative writing students and recent graduates, and unpublished writers generally. Unpublished means no full-length book published by a commercial publisher — a house that chose you and took the risk on you. Short fiction, poetry, essays, journalism and criticism don’t count against you. Neither does the internet: a Substack with paying subscribers, a serialised novel on Royal Road, ten years of Medium essays, a fanfic corpus longer than anything on our list — you published yourself, and that keeps you eligible. If you’ve been doing that seriously, you’re who we’re hoping to hear from. 18+, Australia and New Zealand.
Not sure if you qualify? Email us before you enter. We’ll answer in writing and we’ll stand by it: phoenix@curatedword.com.
No entry fee. No purchase. Judged on skill.
Entries open 1 August 2026 and close 30 September 2026.
The Phoenix List
Submit up to three applications, one for each of any book on this list. You may not enter for a work not on the list.
- Sense & Sensibility
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Wuthering Heights
- Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Crime & Punishment
- The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Nicholas Nickleby
- Bleak House
- A Christmas Carol
- David Copperfield
- Treasure Island
- Dracula
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer