The Creative Future Writers’ Award 2026 received over 1,850 entries from underrepresented writers across the country. We sincerely thank each and every one of you for giving us a chance to read your work. We’re pleased to announce those selected:
Creative Non-Fiction
- Platinum: Maika Carrillo, Pagpag
- Gold: Rebecca Faithful, Pompey Potholes & Sanatorium Chic: Directions Through Material Impermanence
- Silver: Nancy Bianca, Shining Lights Create Shadows
- Bronze: Amelia Gaunt, My Life In Things
- Highly Commended: Jessica Curry, Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Shortlist: Malya Bhattacharya, Azadeh Hashemian, Emily Hay, Drayla Kasheen, Sarah Kwong, Morisha Moodley, Gareth Oliver, Laura Smith, Kate Wildblood
Fiction
- Platinum: Debbie Hudson, How to Dig a Warren
- Gold: Abhishek Parasrampuria, The Evidence Room
- Silver: Aisha Okorie, Blackwashed
- Bronze: Piyumi Kapugeekiyana, Cutting
- Highly Commended: Lauren Vevers, Proof of Delivery
Shortlist: Lauretta Alonge, C Bride, Miranda Horn, Nataliya Kolesova, David Edgardo Martinez, Alex Summer Milne, Avery Rabbitt, Soledad Santana, Sophie Stanley, J Min Wang
Poetry
- Platinum: Alison Tanik, Achilles leaves me in Norwood Junction
- Gold: J.J. Carey, only natural
- Silver: Duranka Perera, The Forgotten Practical Considerations of Being Bombed and Invaded by a Pseudo-Colonial Power
- Bronze: Eva Nisbet, How to Sketch a Man
- Highly Commended: Katie Player, You piece of Whitby jet, tumbling just out of reach
Shortlist: Jane Clarke, Abby Crawford, Tadhg Haran, Sheena Hussain, Maariya Khalid, Patch Layali, Aksaa Mahmood, Yago Soto-André, Alison Clara Tan, Christian Ward
We look forward to working with this year’s winners and furthering their careers, thanks to the generosity of our prizegivers, who contributed £25,000 in courses, development and support.
Our sincere thanks also to the judging panel: poet Nancy Campbell, author, screenwriter & playwright Courttia Newland journalist, broadcaster & editor Kieran Yates, Jack Hadley (Curtis Brown Creative), Beth Brambling (Faber Academy) and Aki Schilz (The Literary Consultancy).
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.
—Nancy Campbell, Award judge
Taking part in judging this award was meaningful and fun. The standard was very high and it was great to see how people were wrestling and challenging themselves, not just with form and language, but by exploring their fears, joys, anxieties and their place in the world, at a time when this has never been more necessary. I applaud everyone who was brave enough to submit to the award, especially our winners. Know that you have been read, enjoyed and debated with great enthusiasm!
—Courttia Newland, Award judge
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.
—Kieran Yates, Award judge
Read this year’s winning pieces, alongside work by our judges and Writers in Residence, in our anthology: click here to order your copy or buy the ebook.
Join us to celebrate the winners at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival on Friday 30 October: book your ticket here. Or you can watch the event online via livestream: details here.
About the winners (in alphabetical order)
Creative Non-Fiction
Maika Carrillo is a self-confessed bibliophile and bookstagrammer based in Rugby. She has contributed to TINIG UK, been published in The Little Book of Positive Birth Stories, Scribbled Online, and Golden (ESEA magazine), and has been awarded overall winner of the 2026 Love Rugby Poetry Competition. She also facilitates the Filipino Mothers UK Book Club.
Jessica Curry is a BAFTA-winning composer, writer, game developer and broadcaster from Hove. She was co-founder of internationally acclaimed game studio The Chinese Room and her music has been performed around the world. She started writing in earnest during the pandemic as an accompaniment to her latest album, ‘Shielding Songs’. Her work draws on themes of disability, feminism, culture and the peculiarities of modern life. Her first non-fiction work, How to Deal With Everything We Lose, was published by Calque Press earlier this year.
Rebecca Faithful is a disabled mother of two from Portsmouth. Motherhood and her disabilities shape her writing. Since graduating from Portsmouth University, she has written a range of works from children’s fantasy to psychological horror.
Amelia Gaunt writes evocative psychological fiction exploring gender, power, misogyny and violence. Amelia was awarded the Faber Academy Writing a Novel Scholarship (2025) and was longlisted for the New Writers 100-Word Competition (2026).
Nancy Bianca is a mother of four who began focusing seriously on her writing after completing a creative writing university course this year. Based in Holyhead, she enjoys writing poetry and creative non-fiction, and is currently working on a memoir. The Creative Future Writers’ Award marks her first competition success and an exciting milestone in her writing journey.
Fiction
Debbie Hudson lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She enjoys writing about the intersection between girlhood, working-class Britain, pop culture and weird transformations. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in online literary magazines such as The Belfast Review, Umbrella Factory and Riggwelter, among other places.
Piyumi Kapugeekiyana is a Sri Lankan writer based in London. She won the 2025 4thWrite Prize by 4th Estate and Guardian, and was a 2024-25 recipient of the City Lit Malorie Blackman Scholarship for Unheard Voices. She has just completed a short story collection and is at work on a novel.
Aisha Okorie is an East London-raised writer whose work centres on the interior lives of Black British women and explores how cultural inheritance is carried in the body. Her debut novel-in-progress won the Writers & Artists Working Class Writers’ Prize 2025 and was runner-up in the Bloomsbury Mentorship Programme 2025-26. She is a HarperCollins Author Academy 2026 graduate.
Abhishek Parasrampuria is an Indian-born speculative fiction writer based in London. His work explores psychology, identity, and the ethics of emerging technologies. A certified Mental Health First Aider, he graduated from the London School of Economics, where he served as editor-in-chief of The London Globalist. He is currently editing his debut novel, ‘The Prognosis.’
Lauren Vevers is a writer from Newcastle upon Tyne whose writing explores queerness, grief, ecology and work. In 2023, they won a Northern Writers’ Award and have since been developing a collection of speculative short fiction alongside a novel-in-progress. They also deliver creative writing workshops with organisations including New Writing North and are part of the Writing Squad’s CORE2 team.
Poetry
J.J. Carey is a poet and writer who lives in Leeds. They won the 2025 Tempest Prize and have been a finalist for the Oxford Poetry Prize and National Poetry Competition. They have been published in Queerlings, Propel, Dishsoap Quarterly and elsewhere.
Eva Nisbet is a creative writing student from Yaxley, Peterborough. She writes about childhood, family and the mind. Her work has been featured in Labyrinthine Magazine, Asian Candystore Zine, ‘Beyond The Walls’ 2026 anthology, York St John folklore anthology, the Where Ideas Grow blog and anthology, and Maggie Denver’s One Poem Only.
Duranka Perera is an academic neurosurgical trainee from London. He was shortlisted for the #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize 2021 and is an alumnus of the HarperCollins Author Academy. His poetry and short fiction have been published online in Litro Magazine and in print as part of multiple anthologies.
Katie Player is an emerging poet from Somerset, with a background in community arts. A former academic writer, she has also been quietly writing and performing poetry at local events for the last fifteen years. Recently, she placed second in the Binsted Prize—the first competition she had ever entered.
Alison Tanik is a Midlands-based poet and performer whose work has appeared in Under the Radar, Aftershock, Seaford Review and others. Her writing has been shortlisted for prizes including Bridport, Oxford Poetry and Mslexia and has won prizes on both sides of the Atlantic. Alison came to writing in her 50s.
The 2027 competition will open in mid-January. Details will be published on our website in due course; sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.
