Shortlist of Three Announced for the 2025 Deborah Rogers Award
The judges of the 2025 Deborah Rogers Award—renowned author and literary critic Erica Wagner (chair), award-winning playwright and poet Inua Ellams, and acclaimed writer, classicist, and broadcaster Natalie Haynes —are pleased to announce the three contenders for this year's prize.
- YELLOW IS NOT FOR GIRLS LIKE ME by June Aming (novel)
- ASCENSION by Piers Kobina Buckman (novel)
- RATRI by Saranya Murthi (novel)
The Deborah Rogers Award supports emerging literary talent with a combined prize pot of £16,000. The winner will receive £10,000 to complete their first full-length book, while the two shortlisted writers will each receive £3,000.
The winner will be announced by Erica Wagner at The Bindery, London, on Tuesday, 4 November.
“It is always exciting to see a diverse range of new voices - and hard to choose among them. But finally, our winner and runners up really stood out to us - it’s thrilling to have been able to make a unanimous decision.” Erica Wagner, Chair of the Judges
This year 876 entries were whittled down to a longlist of eleven submissions featuring a vibrant mix of six short story collections and five novels.
The submissions by writers from Nigeria and Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangalore, England and Ireland, showcase the breadth and diversity of contemporary writing.
Shortlisted Writers – Biographical Notes
June Aming is an award-winning writer based in Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Moving Right Along, ‘16’, and Voicing Our Vision. She was shortlisted for the Small Axe Literary Competition (2014) and longlisted for the BCLF Writing Competition (2024). In 2020, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of the West Indies. In 2023, she won the BlackInk Writing Competition and received a Bocas Breakthrough Fellowship, mentored by Lauren Francis-Sharma. She has completed a manuscript of short stories and is currently working on a female-driven historical novel.
Piers Kobina Buckman was born in Philadelphia and raised between London and Accra, Ghana. A research project in Ghana inspired his novel Ascension, following a young girl’s determination to escape poverty. He studied at the University of Manchester and was a member of its Creative Writing Society. He was a finalist in the Borough Press BAME Open Submissions Competition in 2019, and a finalist for the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize 2024/25.
Saranya Murthi is a 29-year-old writer and audiovisual artist from Kerala, India. She holds a BA in Contemporary Art Practices from Srishti Manipal Institute, Bangalore. As a musician and video artist, she creates immersive audiovisual experiences blending
electronic music with visuals and her own writing. She has performed across India and is currently completing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.