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The longlist for the Deborah Rogers Award 2025 is announced - six short story collections and five novels in the running.

Ten Years of Nurturing New Voices

The Deborah Rogers Award Announces 2025 Longlist

The Deborah Rogers Foundation (DRF) marks a decade of supporting emerging literary talent with a refreshed identity for its flagship prize, now renamed the Deborah Rogers Award. The biennial award continues its mission to champion new voices in fiction and non-fiction, offering a £10,000 prize to an unpublished writer to complete their first book, alongside £3,000 each for two shortlisted authors.

This year’s longlist of eleven features a vibrant mix of six short story collections and five novels. Writers from Nigeria and Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangalore, England and Eire, showcase the breadth and diversity of contemporary writing:

  • Yellow is Not for Girls Like Me – June Aming (novel)
  • Ascension – Piers Kobina Buckman (novel)
  • Quarehawks – Fearghal Hall (stories)
  • A Good Woman – Lizzie Golds (stories)
  • We Can Start This Story – Tega Oghenechovwen (stories)
  • Tales of Shawq – Leeor Ohayon (stories)
  • Happy When – Jenny O'Donnell (novel)
  • Do You Think I'm a Bad Person? – Olakunle Ologunro (stories)
  • Breathwork – Rosa Mäkelä (stories)
  • Ratri – Saranya Murthi (novel)
  • She Herself is a Haunted House – Georgia Poplett (novel)

The shortlist will be revealed on 22 October 2025 by this year’s distinguished judging panel: Erica Wagner (Chair), Inua Ellams, and Natalie Haynes. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 4 November 2025.

For the history of the prize, details of former judges and all the past winners, see https://www.deborahrogersfoundation.org/writers-award

News

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