Among this year’s winners, Ashani Lewis is the only author to win multiple awards, with both the Betty Trask Prize and Somerset Maugham award, for her novel Winter Animals. Described as ‘a rare achievement’ by Somerset Maugham judge Ellen Wiles, and ‘told with verve, intelligence, and confidence’, Winter Animals is the story of thirty-eight-year-old Elen, recently estranged from her husband, who falls in with a group of wealthy squatters and is forced to discover the dark secret that fuels their desire to escape.  

Ashani takes home a total of £14,000 for her double win. Her award will be celebrated tonight at Southwark Cathedral, with the other 22 winners, at the 2025 Society of Authors’ (SoA) Awards ceremony. Sharing a prize fund of over £170,000, the awards are for authors at all stages of their careers, for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and spanning a variety of genres. 

This year, author and composer, Helen Epega, will do an operatic performance and host the awards, with a keynote speech from bestselling author Joseph Coelho. The awards will be livestreamed from 7pm. 

Somerset Maugham Award winner Jo Hamya was also the runner-up for the Volcano Prize this year, for her novel The Hypocrite. Somerset Maugham judge Sandeep Parmar described Hamya as ‘a writer of undeniable gifts’, and said The Hypocrite ‘pushes at the boundaries of love and language at every turn, stepping deftly and confidently.’ 

Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, who won an Eric Gregory Award last year for the manuscript of her poetry collection Food for the Dead, receives a Somerset Maugham award this year for the same collection. The poems examine the current war in Ukraine within its broader historical context and focus on the enduring bonds of humanity in the face of suffering and totalitarianism, written with ‘luminous language and breathtaking detail’ (Somerset Maugham judge, Sandeep Parmar).  

ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award winner, Katie Hale, said: 

‘Writing can be such a long and lonely game at times, so it’s wonderful to receive that external confirmation that you’re doing something right. It’s what keeps you going in the darker times, when the words just won’t come and the plot holes just won’t smooth.’ 

McKitterick Prize winner and ADCI Literary Prize runner-up, Tom Newlands, said:  

‘I feel very honoured to be shortlisted for the ADCI Literary Prize and to win the McKitterick Prize. To have my debut novel recognised in these two categories is particularly meaningful for me because they are linked by my experience. I didn’t start writing until the age of 40, in large part because growing up neurodivergent I didn’t feel my thought processes or methods of working were compatible with the production of a novel. There were no role models out there publishing stories like mine, and in the end, I wrote Only Here, Only Now because I couldn’t find the novel I wanted to read – a warm, vivid and funny story that examined poverty, disability and belonging, and that featured characters rarely found in British fiction. I couldn’t have written this book at any other stage of my life, and I couldn’t have written it without my disability. 

Growing up I wasn’t able to attend university, and before starting work on Only Here, Only Now, I had not written a word of creative prose since high school. To decide to write a novel with zero experience is a huge undertaking, but this is where ADHD takes over; it gives you a disregard for convention, a relentless work ethic and tremendous creative courage. When I finished the manuscript, I had no expectation that anyone would want to read it, let alone publish it, so to see the book now celebrated in this way is really very special. I would love for these nominations to give belief to other neurodivergent writers that their voices can be heard at any age, and to show that for many living with ADHD is a positive and creative experience.’ 

The winners for each award are: 

ADCI Literary Prize 

Sponsored by Arts Council England, ALCS, the Drusilla Harvey Memorial Fund, and the Professional Writing Academy, the Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses (ADCI) Literary Prize is awarded to a disabled or chronically ill writer, for an outstanding novel containing a disabled or chronically ill character or characters.  Judged by Dr. Pragya Agarwal, Penny Batchelor, James Catchpole, Rachel Charlton-Dailey, Linda Corbett, Selina Mills and Okechukwu Nzelu. 

Total prize fund: £2,000 

THE ADCI LITERARY PRIZE WINNER: HELEN HECKETY FOR ALTER EGO (RENEGADE BOOKS, JOHN MURRAY PRESS)  

Helen Heckety is a writer and performer from Kent. She is also disabled. She has written and toured two solo plays, one called To Helen Back and another called Helen Highwater which premiered at the Southbank London Lit Festival 2019. She has also written a poetry collection called The Underlook, which explores medical trauma, bad psychics and the case of a missing piglet. She will be forever in mourning for her hamster, Mahatma Hamster, who was her first friend to find out she’d got a literary agent, and they celebrated with strawberries. This is her debut novel. 

ADCI Literary Prize judge Dr Okechukwu Nzelu said:  

‘Alter Ego by Helen Heckety is a wonderfully engaging novel. From the opening, it captured me with its warmth, humour, humanity and honesty. Heckety is a profoundly insightful writer who has carefully plotted a complex story that will make you laugh out loud, but is unafraid to talk about difficult things. At the heart of that story is a flawed, feeling and hilarious character, with whom I know readers will fall in love.’ 

THE ADCI LITERARY PRIZE RUNNERS-UP: TOM NEWLANDS FOR ONLY HERE, ONLY NOW (PHOENIX, THE ORION PUBLISHING GROUP)  

Tom Newlands is a neurodivergent writer living in London. He is the winner of a London Writers Award and a Creative Future Writers’ Award. His debut novel Only Here, Only Now was selected as a Guardian Fiction Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. 

… AND VICTORIA HAWTHORNE FOR THE DARKEST NIGHT (QUERCUS)  

Victoria Hawthorne is an author of gothic historical fiction. She also writes psychological suspense as Vikki Patis. Originally from North London, she lives in Scotland with her wife, two wild golden retrievers, and an even wilder cat. 

ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award

Sponsored by ALCS and Hawthornden Foundation, the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award is awarded for a short story of up to 5,000 words. Judged by Andre Bagoo, Louise Brealey, Peter Hobbs and Yan Ge  

Total prize fund: £5,000 

THE ALCS TOM GALLON TRUST AWARD WINNER: KATIE HALE FOR ‘RAISE, OR HOW TO BREAK FREE OF THE GROUND, OR THE LAKELAND DIALECT FOR SLIPPERY IS SLAPE AND TO FORM IT IN THE MOUTH REQUIRES AN ACT OF FALLING’  

Based in Cumbria, Katie Hale is the author of two novels: My Name is Monster and The Edge of Solitude, a New Scientist Book of the Month, and has been awarded a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction. Katie also won a Northern Debut Award for her poetry collection, White Ghosts, and she is a former MacDowell Fellow, whose work has taken her from Antarctica to the Arctic. She has won the Palette Poetry Prize, the Munster Chapbook Prize, and the Aesthetica Prize, and her short fiction has been longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. She also mentors young writers as a Core Team Member of the Writing Squad. 

Judge Peter Hobbs said: 

“Raise’ is a beautiful, elliptical gem of a story, its tension created and held perfectly by every sentence. It’s rooted in life and vivid landscape, but offers a meditation on how and why we tell stories. It was an easy winner: the outstanding story this year, and the unanimous choice of all the judges.’ 

THE ALCS TOM GALLON TRUST AWARD RUNNER-UP: HAMISH GRAY FOR ‘BUT THE FIRE WILL SPIT AGAIN’  

Hamish Gray is a Scottish writer with Mauritian heritage. His work explores themes of modern masculinity and mixed identity, and he has recently completed a master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. When writing prose, he enjoys taking moments from his own life and drilling into the emotions they inspire to create a deeper resonance. His work can be found in publications such as New Writing Scotland, Visual Verse, Voice Magazine and Poetry Scotland, and he was the 2021 recipient of The Bobby Aitken Memorial Award. 

Betty Trask Prize 

The Betty Trask Prize is presented for a first novel by a writer under 35. Judged by Andrew Cowan, Daisy Lafarge and Stephanie Sy-Quia. 

Total prize fund: £26,200 

THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE WINNER: ASHANI LEWIS FOR WINTER ANIMALS (DIALOGUE BOOKS, JOHN MURRAY PRESS)  

Ashani Lewis is a novelist and short story writer. She was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021 in their literary fiction category. Her books Winter Animals and Everest were both listed in Marie Claire’s Best Books of 2024, and Everest was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize. 

Judge Andrew Cowan said: 

‘In the strange, snowy atmosphere of Winter Animals anything is possible and nothing is predictable. Newly homeless, almost broke, 36-year-old Elen becomes the unlikely compadre to four privileged young Brits, a ‘gang of runaway utopians’ improvising a life of squatting and skiing and sexual entanglement in the vast abandoned landscapes of North America. It’s an idiosyncratic premise and a truly invigorating slalom of a novel.’ 

Cholmondeley Awards 

Five winners each awarded £1,680. 

The Cholmondeley Awards are awarded for contributions to poetry.  Judged by Malika Booker, Fred D’Aguiar, Hannah Lowe and Lachlan Mackinnon. 

Total prize fund: £8,400 

The winners are:

• James Byrne
• Jane Commane
• Annie Freud
• John Lyons
• Karen McCarthy Woolf 

James Byrne is a poet, editor, translator and visual artist. His most recent poetry collections are Places you Leave and Of Breaking Glass. Byrne has worked with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and has given readings in places such as Libya and Syria. The Overmind was published in 2024 and his Selected Poems, Nightsongs for Gaia are forthcoming. 

Jane Commane is a writer, tutor and director/editor at Nine Arches Press. Her debut poetry collection, Assembly Lines (Bloodaxe, 2018) was longlisted for the 2019 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. She is co-editor of Under the Radar magazine and co-author of How to Be a Poet. Her poetry has featured in Staying Human (Bloodaxe) as well as in The Guardian, and on BBC Radio 4. She is a Writing West Midlands’ Room 204 writer, and in 2017 was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. In 2025, Jane was awarded the Paul McVeigh Residency, and is currently writing a novel. 

Annie Freud is a poet, artist, teacher and editor. She has 4 poetry collections in print with Picador: The Best Man that Ever Was – 2007  The Mirabelles – 2010 (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize) The Remains – 2015 Hiddensee – 2020 She was included in 2014 Next Generation Poets and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is renowned for her live performances.  

John Lyons was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He came to the UK to study art at the age of 25, gaining a National Diploma in Design from Goldsmiths College, London (1959-64) and an Art Teachers Diploma from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1964-65).  In 1967 he moved to Manchester, where he worked as a secondary school art teacher for nine years, and then as an FE art lecturer for seventeen years Developing his painting practice alongside teaching full time, he has exhibited regularly in solo and group shows since 1979. He is also a prize-winning poet, with eight published volumes. In 2003 he received the Windrush Arts Achiever Award. He lives and works in Cambridgeshire. 

Dr Karen McCarthy Woolf FRSL is a Fulbright Scholar and winner of the 2025 Jerwood Prize for Poetry (England). Her verse novel Top Doll has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot and Jhalak Prizes. Karen teaches at Goldsmiths and is the editor of seven literary anthologies, including Nature Matters: Vital Poems of the Global Majority (Faber, 2025). Her next collection Unsafe is published by Bloomsbury in 2026. 

The Eric Gregory Awards 

Six winners each awarded £4,725 

The Eric Gregory Awards are presented for a collection of poems by a poet under 30. Judged by Caroline Bird, Jasmine Gardosi, Harry Josephine Giles, Roy McFarlane, Rosie Miles and  Eric Ngalle Charles. 

Total prize fund: £28,350 

The winners are:  

• Tom Bailey for Please Do Not Touch or Feed the Horses  
• Sophia Georghiou for Gloria Trillo 
• Kaycee Hill for Sonic Inheritance 
• Oluwaseun Olayiwola for Strange Beach 
• Katie O’Pray for Apricot 
• Eric Yip for Exposure 

Eric Gregory Awards judge Roy McFarlane said:  

‘Judging for the Eric Gregory Award has been a wonderful experience. The quality and depths of writing made the final decision so difficult, that the gap between longlist and winners was miniscule. The winners showed strength in writing, some deft in their approach, others sang across the page, but all with an amazing technical fortitude. I loved the places I was taken to, the experiences shared and vulnerabilities that were laid on the page. Their stories were alive, inventive and captured me like a painting or sculpture, leaving me sitting in their words long after it had finished.’ 

Tom Bailey is a poet and writer based in Edinburgh. His debut pamphlet, Please Do Not Touch or Feed the Horses, was published by Poetry London Editions in March 2025. His poems have been published in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, bath magg, Berlin Lit, Anthropocene, The North and elsewhere. He also co-edits the online poetry magazine And Other Poems. 

Sophia Georghiou is a British poet and writer of Italian/Greek heritage. Her writing has appeared in The Journal of Creative Writing Research and various poetry journals. Her poem ‘Advice for Winter’ won James Massiah’s Party Poetry Prize in 2020 and her poem ‘Pirouette’ was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2021. She recently earned an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths, where her poetry portfolio was longlisted for the 2025 Pat Kavanagh Prize.  

Kaycee Hill, a working-class poet of mixed heritage, recently completed her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol. A former poetry ambassador for Hampshire and Dorset, and winner of the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize, Kaycee’s poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Five Dials, and in various anthologies. Her debut collection Hot Sauce is published by Bloodaxe Books and she received mentorship from Malika Booker. 

Oluwaseun Olayiwola is a poet, critic, and choreographer living in London. His writing has been published in Granta, the Guardian, the Poetry Review, the Telegraph and elsewhere. His debut collection is forthcoming from Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Soft Skull Press (US). 

Katie O’Pray is a poet, who works as a creative facilitator – propelled by the therapeutic potential writing holds within our communities, as a means of expression, activism, empowerment and connection. Their poetry has been associated with a variety of prizes, institutions and publications, including The ruth weiss Foundation, the Barbican Centre, the National Poetry Competition, the Manchester Writing Competition, The Poetry Review and fourteen poems, among others. Their debut collection of poetry, Apricot, was published by Out-Spoken Press in 2022; concerned with building a vocabulary for bodily violences – particularly those of gender, of eating disorders, of addiction, of chronic illness, of remembering. 

Eric Yip is from Hong Kong and the author of Exposure (ignitionpress, 2024). He won the 2021 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem and the 2024 Michael Marks Poetry Award. His writing has appeared in Best New Poets, The Guardian, The Poetry Review, and Poets & Writers. 

Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize 

The Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize is awarded to a UK or Irish writer, or a writer currently resident in those countries, for a novel focusing on the experience of travel away from home. In memory of Malcolm Lowry and endowed by Gordon Bowker, his biographer, and Ramdei Bowker. Judged by  Dr. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Derek Owusu and Jini Reddy. 

Total prize fund: £2,750 

THE GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZE WINNER: HISHAM MATAR FOR MY FRIENDS (VIKING, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE)  

Hisham Matar was born in New York to Libyan parents, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his life in London. His memoir The Return received a Pulitzer Prize in 2017. He is also the author of In the Country of Men, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Anatomy of a Disappearance and A Month in Siena. His most recent novel, My Friends, won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and nominated for the National Book Award. His work has been translated into over thirty languages. 

Judge Elizabeth-Jane Burnett said: 

‘My Friends explores the lives of three Libyan men living in political exile through a compassionate and probing lens of friendship. The novel shows how one small act can change the course of a life when narrator, Khaled, joins a demonstration outside the Libyan embassy in London. Through Khaled’s London life we see the value of routine and the quotidian in establishing a sense of belonging, as well as a vibrant portrayal of literary London, encountering places where past writers lived and worked. The writing is sensitive, understated and beautifully expressed.’ 

… AND ELIF SHAFAK FOR THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY (VIKING, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE) 

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. The author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel. Shafak holds a PhD in political science, and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President’s Medal for ‘her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range. 

Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize judge Jini Reddy said:

‘Imbued with a sumptuous and vivid sense of place, There are Rivers in the Sky travels between ancient Mesopotamia, modern day Turkey and Iraq and contemporary London via the capital’s Victorian-era slums. Following the lives of three complex, captivating characters bound by life-giving water and an epic poem, the novel segues effortlessly between enchantment and brutality, the sacred and scholarship, hurt and healing. Shafak is an empathic and wise storyteller, and her tender, elegant prose invites us all to live more connected, humane and impassioned lives.’ 

RUNNER-UP JO HAMYA FOR THE HYPOCRITE (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, ORION) 

Jo Hamya was born in London in 1997. She is the author of Three Rooms and The Hypocrite, which was shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2024. She has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others, and served as co-host of the Booker Prize Podcast. She is also the recipient of a Harold Moody doctoral studentship at King’s College London, where her research focuses around building on 20th century western literary sociology and critique to create a viable school of literary criticism for a 21st century digitised landscape. 

McKitterick Prize 

Sponsored by Hawthornden Foundation, the McKitterick Prize is awarded for a first novel by a writer over 40. Judged by Rebecca Foster, Gonzalo C Garcia, Anietie Isong, Wenyan Lu, Kathy O’Shaughnessy and Nick Rennison. 

Total prize fund: £10,000 

THE MICKITTERICK PRIZE WINNER: TOM NEWLANDS FOR ONLY HERE, ONLY NOW (PHOENIX, THE ORION PUBLISHING GROUP)  

Judge Rebecca Foster said:  

‘Only Here, Only Now is bursting with vitality. With her broken heart and fizzing brain, Cora Mowat vows to escape her grim Fife town. Tom Newlands’s evocation of the 1990s—and of his teenage narrator—is utterly convincing. Soaring above grief, poverty, and substance abuse, Cora’s voice is pure magic.’ 

THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE RUNNER-UP: LAUREN ELKIN FOR SCAFFOLDING (CHATTO & WINDUS, VINTAGE)  

Lauren Elkin is the author of several books, including Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the art of the essay. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper’s, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. She is also an award-winning translator, most recently of Simone de Beauvoir’s previously unpublished novel The Inseparables. After twenty years in Paris, she now lives in London. 

Queen’s Knickers Award 

Sponsored by its founder Nicholas Allan, the Queen’s Knickers Award is an annual prize for an outstanding children’s original illustrated book for ages 0-7. It recognises books that strike a quirky, new note and grab the attention of a child, whether in the form of curiosity, amusement, horror or excitement. Judged by Dapo Adeola, Davina Hamilton, and Soofiya. 

Total prize fund: £6,000 

THE QUEEN’S KICKERS AWARD WINNER: TINY FISSCHER, ILLUSTRATOR HERMA STARREVELD AND TRANSLATOR LAURA WATKINSON FOR BIRD IS DEAD (GREYSTONE KIDS) 

Tiny Fisscher,  based in Amsterdam, writes for all ages in all genres, and is the author of many books for children. For ‘Turtle’s happiness’ she received the silver pen, an important Dutch award for children’s books. For ‘All the things I could say’ she won the audience award for best philosophical children’s book of 2024. 

Herma Starreveld was originally a therapist and now works as a mixed media artist. 

Laura Watkinson is an award-winning, full-time literary translator. She translates into English, from Dutch, Italian, and German. She lives in Amsterdam. 

Queen’s Knickers judge Davina Hamilton said: 

‘Bird Is Dead was a standout story for me, right from the very beginning of the judging process. It goes against the grain of ‘traditional’ children’s stories, by tackling the challenging emotion of grief – and through thoughtful, yet straight-talking storytelling, Tiny Fisscher manages to approach the subject matter in the most humorous and heartwarming way. I absolutely loved the story’s honesty and realism, reflecting that death can sometimes be unexpected, and can evoke a range of questions, feelings and behaviours – including bickering! – among those grieving the loss of their loved one. Herma Starreveld’s use of dark backgrounds, juxtaposed with each bird character’s bright, multicoloured coats, really captures the essence of the story by delivering a visual representation of the many layers of grief. I think this is a really touching story for young readers who are curious about, or personally experiencing the impact of death and grief.’ 

THE QUEEN’S KNICKERS AWARD RUNNER-UP: SWAPNA HADDOW AND ILLUSTRATOR YITING LEE FOR LITTLE DINOSAURS, BIG FEELINGS (MAGIC CAT PUBLISHING) 

Swapna Haddow is the best-selling author and award-winning funny lady of over 40 books for younger readers. She has won the Surrey Libraries Book Award and Fantastic Book Award, and is the creator of Dave Pigeon. Originally from the UK, Swapna now lives in New Zealand with her husband, son and dog, Archie. 

A nomad of the Earth, Yiting Lee, is a Taiwanese author and illustrator who spent six years in the UK, where she graduated from MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art in 2012. Whimsical and unpredictable stories are at the heart of her picture books. Yiting is the author of The Quiet One (Eerdmans Books, 2025), Le Jardin de Jean (DES ELEPHANTS, 2024) and What’s the Rush? (Princeton Architectural Press, 2022). She likes to keep her stories simple and her illustrations full, because she knows how much children are captured by the details. 

Somerset Maugham Awards

Four winners each awarded £4,000. 

The Somerset Maugham Awards are for published works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by writers under 30, to enable them to enrich their work by gaining experience of foreign countries. Judged by Akeem Balogun, Sandeep Parmar and Ellen Wiles. 

The winners are:  

• Jo Hamya for The Hypocrite (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, Orion) 
• Ashani Lewis for Winter Animals (Dialogue Books) 
• Jason Okundaye for Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain (Faber & Faber) 
• Charlotte Shevchenko Knight for Food for the Dead (Jonathan Cape, Vintage) 

Judge Ellen Wiles said: 

‘This varied, diverse and dynamic shortlist revealed a new generation of writers buzzing with ideas and hungry to share them.’ 

Jo Hamya was born in London, in 1997. She is the author of Three Rooms and has written for The New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Fence, among others. Currently, she works as an in house writer and archivist for the Booker Prizes and its authors. She is also the recipient of a Harold Moody doctoral studentship at King’s College London, where her research focuses around building on 20th century western literary sociology and critique to create a viable school of literary criticism for a 21st century digitised landscape. 

Ashani Lewis is a novelist and short story writer. She was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021 in their literary fiction category. Her books Winter Animals and  Everest were both listed in Marie Claire’s Best Books of 2024, and  Everest was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize. 

Jason Okundaye is an Assistant Editor and Writer at the Guardian. His first book, Revolutionary Acts, a social history of Black gay men in Britain was published by Faber in 2024, and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. 

Charlotte Shevchenko Knight is a writer of both British and Ukrainian heritage. Her debut poetry collection Food for the Dead, published by Jonathan Cape in 2024, was a winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the Laurel Prize for Best First Collection UK. Shevchenko Knight is a Manchester City Poet and is completing her PhD at the Manchester Writing School. She is currently writing a lyric memoir titled  The Inexpressible. 

Travelling Scholarships

Five writers each awarded £7,000  

The Travelling Scholarships are awarded to British writers to enable engagement with writers abroad. Judged by Emily Barr,  Louise Jury, Alvin Pang,  Johny Pitts,  and Philip Terry. 

Total prize fund: £35,000 

The winners are Sally Bayley, Jasbinder Bilan, Marcus Field, Montenegro Fisher (the collaborative work of Luna Montenegro and Adrian Fisher) and Nathalie Olah. 

Travelling Scholarships Judge Philip Terry said: 

‘All writers need to travel, and the Travelling Scholarships help them do just that. It’s a particularly exciting prize, as there are no limits on the kind of work it supports.’ 

Sally Bayley is the author of a series of ground-breaking books which defy category and genre. All explore the relationship between biography, autobiography and fiction through myth, fable, fairytale and forms of lyrical and visual memory. Published works include her three-part coming-of-age sequence, Girl with Dove, No Boys Play Here and The Green Lady and a study of the diary as an art form, The Private Life of the Diary. Sally hosts and performs the highly successful podcast A Reading Life, A Writing Life, designed to inspire creative writing, innovative reading, and artistic responses to living. Her next book will be Pond Life. 

Jasbinder Bilan is an award-winning children’s author. Her debut, Asha and the Spirit Bird, won the Times Chickenhouse prize in 2017 and went on to win the Costa Book Award 2020. Since then, she has published ten novels which been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, longlisted for the Blue Peter Award, shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Prize and won The Indie Book Award. Jasbinder is a Royal Literary Fellow and part of Writers’ Mosaic and her latest book Naeli and the Secret Song, is an exciting historical adventure with themes of de-colonisation, belonging, and female empowerment 

Marcus Field is a journalist and former arts editor of The Independent on Sunday. He began his career on architecture magazines and has written widely on architecture, design, art and theatre. In 2006 he moved to Spain, where he lived in an eco-village in Andalucia for six years. During that time he lived off-grid, with river water and solar power as his only resources. He learned to grow his own food, and spent time exploring Spain and writing about his life there for newspapers including The Independent and The Evening Standard. Since 2012 he has lived in South Devon, where he has continued to work as a freelance journalist, writing about art, museums and his travels to Spain and beyond.   

Montenegrofisher is the collaborative work of poets and artists Luna Montenegro and Adrian Fisher, based in London. For over 25 years, they have worked together across poetry, performance, sound, and visual art, exploring the poetic as a way to engage with ecology, locality, and social transformation. Their work moves fluidly between text, performance, image, video, sound and experimental publications. Inspired by contemporary art processes, their time with ‘Writers Forum London’ and the legacy of Bob Cobbing, they draw on sound and poetry traditions from both the UK and Latin America. Their expanded practice includes experimental translation, graphic scores and film poetry, with a focus on creating spaces for collaboration, reflection and sustainability. 

Nathalie Olah is an author and cultural critic concerned with questions of cultural hegemony and propaganda, the aestheticization of politics and how certain media tropes normalise the phenomenon of class. She is currently based in London.