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Ten Years on: the Deborah Rogers Foundation announces the 2025 Writers Award

Ten Years on: the Deborah Rogers Foundation announces the  2025 Writers Award 

●    Erica Wagner chairs a panel of three judges
●    Founded in 2015, the DRF Writers Award returns for 2025 celebrating ten years of championing new writing 
●    The winner receives £10,000 to complete first book
Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award

The Deborah Rogers Foundation announces that submissions for the 2025 DRF Writers Award will open on 1st January and close on 31st March 2025. 

The judges of the 2025 DRF Writers Award will be the renowned author and literary critic Erica Wagner (chair), the award-winning playwright and poet Inua Ellams and Natalie Haynes, the acclaimed writer, broadcaster, classicist and comedian. 

They will announce the shortlist of three in October and the Award will be presented in November 2025. 

The DRF Writers Award was established in 2015 and over the past decade has helped to launch the careers of internationally bestselling authors. 

Three previous winners of the Award will have their books published in 2025: Mathelinda Nabugodi’s non-fiction work, The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive will be published by Hamish Hamilton/Knopf, ‘Pemi Aguda’s novel The Suicide Mothers will be published by Virago/WN Norton and Masobe in Nigeria, and Neil Rollinson’s novel The Dead Don’t Bleed will be published by Jonathan Cape.
 

News

Ten Years on: the Deborah Rogers Foundation announces the 2025 Writers Award
The Deborah Rogers Foundation announces that submissions for the 2025 DRF Writers Award will open on 1st January and close on 31st March 2025.
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The Deborah Rogers Foundation Spring Newsletter 2024
April 2024 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Deborah Rogers, after which this Foundation was set up in her memory. So this seems the appropriate moment to celebrate the positive impact that the DRF has made to our industry by supporting emerging talent in the publishing world.
Milan Sehmbi and Wiggy Bob Snow successfully complete the DMIP 2023
Winning candidates Milan Sehmbi and Wiggy Bob Snow spent six weeks on placement with literary agencies and publishing companies to gain an insight into the world of publishing rights.
2023 DRF Writers Award Winner Announced
Judges Abdulrazak Gurnah, Claire Adam and Annalena McAfee announce Neil Rollison as the winner of the 2023 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award for his work, The Dead Don’t Bleed.
Shortlist of three announced for the 2023 DRF Writers Award
Judges Abdulrazak Gurnah, Claire Adam and Annalena McAfee announce the shortlist for the 2023 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award.
Longlist of nine announced for the 2023 DRF Writers Award
Nobel Prize winner, Abdulrazak Gurnah, chairs a panel of three judges. The winner receives £10,000 to complete first book. DRF Writers Award to be presented on 9th November in London