Writing Class Writers' Prize

-

 Full details 

Ashley Hickson-Lovence was born in London in 1991 and is the author of the acclaimed novels The 392, Your Show, the 2024 prize-winning YA novel Wild East, and a poetry collection Why I am Not a Bus Driver. He has a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. He has taught Creative Writing at the Arts University Bournemouth, University of East Anglia, University of Suffolk and the University of Cambridge. His nominations include the Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature 2023 and the Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025. 

Photo credit: Iggy London

Previous judges include Natasha Carthew, Lisa McInerney, Paul Mendez, Jessica Andrews, Kasim Ali and Clare Whitfield.

Dates and further announcements

The prize will open for entries on 1st November for a one-month window, with longlist, shortlist and winner announcements scheduled to take place in early 2026. 

Eligibility

To enter this competition, all entrants must:

  • Consider yourself from a working class background
  • Be over 18 and living in the UK or ROI
  • Not have a publishing contract or agent
  • Submit a piece of unpublished writing 
     

Prizes

The winner of the 2025 prize will receive the following:

  • A fully-catered 5-day Little Goat Barn writing retreat in North Wales hosted by the Ruppin Agency, with return travel included  
  • Mentoring sessions with judge Ashley Hickson-Lovence and OU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Emily Bullock
  • One-to-one with Jonathan Ruppin, director of the Ruppin Agency and former literary agent
  • A year-long membership to The Society of Authors
  • A £200 cash prize
  • A place at a Writers & Artists writing and publishing event
  • A bundle of creative writing books, including the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook

Two runners-up will also receive mentoring support from Emily Bullock and a one-to-one with Jonathan Ruppin. All shortlisted writers will be gifted a year-long membership to The Society of Authors. 

All entries will receive feedback on their entry from the W&A Team. Please note that you may not receive your feedback for up to 12 months after the prize closing date. We are an incredibly small team and want to ensure that each piece of feedback is carefully considered so that the writer can hopefully find something of use. We appreciate your patience.
 

Full competition entry details

To enter this competition, all entrants must:

  • Submit the beginning of an unpublished work-in-progress. This can be in any genre but must appear as prose, be no more than 2,000 words in length, and attached to our online submissions form in a.doc or .pdf format
  • A one-page synopsis that corresponds with the full-length version of your current work-in-progress in the same document as your 2,000 words. Please include the synopsis after your writing. The document that you upload must contain your name within the document title
  • A description of up to 200 words outlining your writing background and how you self-identify as a working-class writer within the Covering Letter section of our online form. Please note that this description does not need to be 200 words We are also not looking for writing 'credentials' or stead-fast justification, but simply how this prize speaks to you
  • Have an account with writersandartists.co.uk, which is free to create
  • Submit their entry via our online form below

You do require an internet connection to submit your competition entry, however if you have any questions or specific accessibility queries, please do contact us at writersandartists@bloomsbury.com.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DAW

-
Image
Full details  Overview Founded in 1971 by veteran paperback editor Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, DAW Books was the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy. Now almost 50 years and two thousand titles later, DAW has a well-deserved reputation for discovering and publishing the hottest talents in the industry. Many stars of the science fiction and fantasy field made their debuts in the pages of a DAW book, including Patrick Rothfuss , Tad Williams , C. J. Cherryh , Mercedes Lackey , Kristen Britain , Melanie Rawn , C.S. Friedman , and Tanith Lee . Despite its high profile, DAW is still a small private company, owned exclusively by its publishers, Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert. Betsy and Sheila are strongly committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, and to keeping a personal “family” spirit at DAW—something they feel is all too rare in today’s world of international cong...
Read more

Polis Books

-
Full details  Polis Books is an independent publishing company actively seeking new and established authors for our growing list. We are currently acquiring titles in the genres listed on the web site. Please keep in mind that while Polis Books does accept unsolicited submissions, due to the incredibly high volume of unsolicited material we receive, we will only respond to queries if we have interest in the submission. If you have not received a response to your query in 12 weeks you can assume we have passed on it. We know how much time and effort goes into every manuscript, and we sincerely apologize that we cannot reply to every submission individually.  Please keep in mind that we do not publish stand-alone novellas or short stories, and novel-length submissions should generally be a minimum of 60,000 words. We will very rarely consider titles under that length. Note: we do not respond to emails that are not submissions . If you want to know whether w...
Read more

Boyd's Mill and Kane

-
Imprints Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction titles for picture book, middle grade, and young adult audiences. Established in 1990, Boyds Mills Press features picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction books that focus on excellent storytelling, imaginative illustration, and diverse characters. Our exceptionally crafted titles are designed to entertain, inform, and engage children of all ages. We are actively seeking submissions for the Boyds Mills Press imprint.  Wordsong is the only children’s imprint in the United States specifically dedicated to poetry. Wordsong publishes picture book poetry collections as well as poetry collections for middle grade and young adult readers. We publish novels in verse that are made up of discrete, powerful, individual poems. Some of the well-known poets who publish under the Wordsong imprint include Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Marilyn S...
Read more