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


The winner will be announced in February 2019. For more information about the DRF David Miller Bursary please visit the bursary page.
The Deborah Rogers Foundation announced that applications are now open for the second David Miller Bursary. Candidates have until 16th December to apply. Applications should be made via the website.
The winner of the 2018 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award is Deepa Anappara for Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, a work of fiction.
Judges Anne Enright, Pete Hobbs and Jenny Uglow announce the shortlist for the 2018 £10,000 DRF Award. Three are chosen out of 752 entries. Winner to be announced on 16th May at Award ceremony in London
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.
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.
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.
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
We are delighted to announce the publication of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar this month by Harvill Secker.
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.