"These writers transport the reader to diverse locations."
In 2025, the Creative Future Writers Awards (CFWA) returned for its twelfth year.
The event attracted over 1,600 submissions from unpublished writers across the UK.
A prize fund of £20,000 was up for grabs, along with top writing development prizes to be shared by winners to enhance and progress their writing careers.
The 15 winning entries of the Creative Future Writers Awards spanned fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry.
Within these genres, the winners of the CFWA explored themes including grief, resilience, and belonging.
As well as these, pieces also encompassed ideas of lived experiences of disability, homelessness, and growing up in care.
The Platinum Prize for Creative Non-Fiction was won by Ellen Rickford for Letter to Bobby, an atmospheric and nostalgic story set in New York about an intense friendship, exploring human frailty, resilience and the courage to reveal oneself fully.
Ellen Rickford only began writing regularly in April 2024, and this is the first time she has entered a literary competition.
The Platinum Prize for Poetry has been awarded to physicist and poet Jasmin Allenspach for what makes tick/my mother.
This was a lyrical, experimental poem inspired by her mother’s experience of contracting Lyme disease, exploring the challenges of living with a chronic illness, and how it impacts family and shame around the condition.
Writer and illustrator Laurel Hart has won the Platinum Prize for Fiction for Actias Luna.
It is a moving short story about motherhood, grief and the cycles of nature.
A bereaved zookeeper starts to hear the animals she cares for talking to her after the death of her daughter.
This is the first time Laurel has entered a literary competition.
Abu Leila, who won the Silver Prize for Fiction, wrote Dogs for Hips, centring on a young girl growing up in war who outsmarts the soldier threatening her mother.
Abu lives in London and is an alumnus of Barbican Young Poets and a winner of a London Writers Award.
Their poetry has been performed in Kolkata, India, with the Queer Muslim Project.
Here are the Creative Future Writers Award winners:
Creative Non-Fiction
Platinum – Letter to Bobby – Ellen Rickford
Gold – invisibled – gobscure
Silver – Radio Silence – Stephanie Y. Tam
Bronze – I screamed in lowercase – Matt Taylor
Highly Commended – Aminat – Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed
Poetry
Platinum – what makes tick / my mother – Jasmin Allenspach
Gold – 4% of the mammals on planet earth are wild – Godelieve de Bree
Silver – My Soul – Beatrice Feng
Bronze – The Three Ways I have Witnessed Creation – Nathan Steward
Highly Commended – Sheds – William Wyld
Fiction
Platinum – Actias Luna – Laurel Hart
Gold – Habitat – Eve Naden
Silver – Dogs for hips – Abu Leila
Bronze – A Gentle Nudge – Amy Leonard
Highly Commended – Wild Fruit – Emma Allotey
The winning submissions were on the thematic prompt of ‘Wild’.
Alongside work by the judges, they were published in an anthology, which can be purchased here.
Judge of the 2025 CFWA, poet Nancy Campbell, said: “What an honour to read new fiction, non-fiction and poetry which demonstrates such outstanding creative talent.
“Congratulations are due to everyone on the shortlist for their courage in submitting their work.
“These writers transport the reader to diverse locations and domains of experience, exploring urgent themes and challenging dominant discourse.
“In uncertain and precarious times language can occasionally seem inadequate to express injustice and trauma.
“But these compelling new voices are forging work that is vital, transformative and hopeful.”
Judge of the 2025 CFWA, journalist, broadcaster, author, and editor Kieran Yates, added:
“It was such a joy to read these essays and get a sense of what writers are thinking about in relation to the theme, and beyond.
“The process encouraged me to be thoughtful, engaged and made me consider what I love about literature all over again.”
An awards ceremony featuring the winners and the head judges will take place at the Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival on Saturday, October 25, 2025, at 7 pm.
This will be followed by a popular free Writers’ Day on October 26 at the Southbank Centre.
Writers, publishers, and literary professionals will be sharing tips and initiatives during talks and panels.
You can find out more information here.
See photographs of the winners in our special gallery:
Loading ...