The 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is open for entries.
Submission Guidelines
- The prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background.
- All prizes are for short works, not for novel/memoir extracts. While extracts from longer works are eligible, they must stand alone as complete works in their own right.
Categories: Fiction, Poetry, Life Writing.
Entry fee: £12 for a single entry, £16 for a double entry and £6 for a single subsidised entry. You may make multiple entries if you would like to do so by completing the entry form multiple times.
Judges: Romesh Gunesekera, Anton Hur, Noreen Masud, Yasmine Seale.
Prizes
- The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri magazine.
- All winners and shortlisted writers will be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility), as well as a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri.
Deadline: 11.59 pm BST on 30th June, 2025.
Full details, including how to apply, can be found here.