Deborah-Rogers-Foundation-INVERTED

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biennial award continues its mission to champion new voices in fiction and non-fiction, offering a £10,000 prize to an unpublished writer to complete their first book, alongside £3,000 each for two shortlisted authors.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

Writers Award Winner Sharlene Teo to be published in April
We are delighted that the winner of the inaugural Writers Award, Sharlene Teo’s debut novel, Ponti, will be published by Picador in the UK in April 2018 and by Simon & Schuster in the US in September 2018. It is currently sold in seven other languages.
Writers Award shortlisted author Guy Stagg’s ‘The Crossway’ to be published in June
The Crossway is an account of Guy Stagg’s extraordinary pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. It will be published by Picador on the 14th June 2018 and will be BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week from the 18th June 2018.
Sam Coates, winner of The DRF David Miller Bursary, reports on his time at four publishers
The winner of the inaugural DRF David Miller Bursary, Sam Coates, has reported on his time spent at four different publishing companies. The report is now available to read in this post.
Shortlist for the Writers Award to be announced on the 2nd May and the winner on 16th May
The shortlist for the 2018 DRF Writers Award will be announced on Wednesday 2nd May. The Award itself will be presented by Anne Enright on Wednesday 16th May at an event in London
DRF shortlisted book 'The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock' published.
We are delighted to announce the publication of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar this month by Harvill Secker.
Submissions to the Writers’ Award are now closed
At 6pm on Wednesday 13th December submissions to the DRF Writers’ Award closed. The winner will be announced in May 2018 and shortlisted writers will be contacted directly.
Only a week to go before the submissions close for the 2018 Writers’ Award
Submissions for the 2018 Writers’ Award close on 13th December.
Deborah Rogers Foundation Announces Second DRF Writers Award (2018)
Submissions open from 1 October until 13 December 2017. Man Booker winner, Anne Enright, to chair the judges. Ponti, winner of the inaugural award, already sold in 8 countries
The 2018 DRF Writers Award
Submissions for the 2018 Writers Award will open on 1st October 2017 and close on 13th December 2017.
Announcement of winner of the Deborah Rogers Foundation Bursary Award
The winner of the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Bursary Award is Sam Coates, Senior Rights Executive of Vintage Books, PRH. The Bursary will henceforth be known as the DRF David Miller Bursary in memory of David Miller (1966-2016) who worked at RCW and was a founding member of the DRF Bursary.