The 2025 DRF Writers Award
Applications for the 2025 DRF Writers Award have now closed.
Further details of previous award winners and judges can be found below
The Judges of the 2025 DRF Writers Award
Erica Wagner (chair) is a writer and literary critic. Her first book was a collection of short stories, Gravity published by Granta in 1997. Her other books include Ariel’s Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters, Chief Engineer, A biography of Washington Roebling, the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge, and most recently, Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story. Her poems have appeared in the TLS and PNReview and her stories have been widely anthologized. She reviews regularly for The New York Times, writes for the New Statesman and is Consulting Literary Editor for Harper’s Bazaar, UK.
She has judged many literary prizes; the Man Booker, the Orange Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, and the Forward Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Goldsmiths Distinguished Writers’ Centre Fellow.
Erica commented:
‘I’m completely thrilled to be the chair of the DRF Writers Award in 2025. This valuable award demonstrates a commitment to nurturing talent: keeping an eye out for up-and-coming writers who are making the world new is something I've always held close to my heart. To be involved in a prize like this is very meaningful to me, and I look forward to exciting discoveries.’
Inua Ellams is a Nigerian-born British poet, playwright and curator. He has been honoured with an MBE for Services To The Arts, and an Honorary Doctorate from University Of The Arts, London. Inua has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the BBC. He is an ambassador for The Ministry of Stories and The London Library, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Royal Society of Arts, and board member of The Poetry Translation Centre, Complicité Theatre, The Royal Society of Literature and Cheltenham Literature Festival
He is a cross disciplinary artist, an internationally touring performer, a poet, playwright, screenwriter, graphic artist & designer. His published books of poetry include Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, The Wire-Headed Heathen, #Afterhours, The Actual and The Half God of Rainfall. His first play The 14th Tale was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival. Others include Barber Shop Chronicles and Three Sisters.
Natalie Haynes is an English writer and broadcaster and – according to the Washington Post – a rock star mythologist. Her first novel, The Amber Fury, was published to great acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, as was The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, her previous book. Her second novel, The Children of Jocasta, was published in 2017. Her retelling of the Trojan War, A Thousand Ships, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and has been translated into multiple languages. Her most recent non-fiction book, Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myth reached number 2 in the New York Times Bestseller chart. Her novel about Medusa, Stone Blind, was published in 2022.
She writes for the Guardian and appears regularly on BBC Radio 4, including nine series of her show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. She has spoken on the modern relevance of the classical world on three continents, from Cambridge to Chicago to Auckland.
The Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award History
The Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award was the first initiative of the Deborah Rogers Foundation, set up in 2015 in memory of the much loved and respected literary agent, Deborah Rogers. In keeping with Deborah’s special talent for nurturing and supporting emerging new writers, the Award gives £10,000 to a previously unpublished writer whose submission of 15,000- 20,000 words demonstrates literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their first book. The submitted work can be fiction, non-fiction, children’s or short stories. Applicants must reside in the British Commonwealth or Eire. The winner receives £10,000 and the two shortlisted authors £1,000 each.
The Award is biennial. Entries for the Award are invited in January for judging in November of the same year. Typically there are 800-1,000 entries. For details of how to apply, please visit the Submissions Guidelines page.
The 2023 Writers Award
Neil Rollinson was born in Yorkshire and lives in the north east of England. He studied painting at St Martins School of Art and has published four collections of poetry with Jonathan Cape. He has spent most of his adult life teaching poetry at various universities in the UK, including Bath Spa, London University of the Arts, and Oxford Brookes.
The Dead Don’t Bleed is his first foray into writing prose. On receiving the 2023 Writers Award he commented, “I was extremely surprised and delighted to win the award. For a first time novelist still learning the ropes it was a great vote of confidence. This will give me the needed inspiration to continue on finishing and finalising the manuscript and of course the prize will enable me now to find the necessary time to commit to it without having to worry about other work, for a while.”
The Dead Don’t Bleed has been acquired by Jonathan Cape who will publish in 2025.
Previous recipients of the DRF Writers Award
2016
Sharlene Teo was the winner of the inaugural 2016 DRF Writers Award for her novel Ponti. Ponti was published by Picador (UK) and Simon and Schuster (US) in 2018. It was shortlisted for the Hearst Big Book Award and Edward Stanford Award, and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. It has been translated into eleven languages.
Sharlene said: “Winning the Deborah Rogers Award was life-changing and provided me with the confidence and support to finish my novel.”
Guy Stagg was a runner-up for the 2016 DRF Writers Award for his memoir, The Crossway, a memoir. The Crossway was published by Picador and was the Edward Stanford Travel Memoir of the Year 2019 , as well as being shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award. It was also a BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'. His next book, The World Within, is about the role of retreat in creative lives. It will be published by Simon and Schuster, July 2025.
Imogen Hermes Gower was a runner-up for the 2016 DRF Writers Award for her novel The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. The novel sold in a 10-way auction and was published in 2018 by Harvill Secker (UK) and Harper Perennial (US). It has been translated into ten languages and enjoyed critical success all over the world. It is a winner of the Betty Trask award, a finalist for the MsLexia First Novel Prize, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the National Book Awards and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and longlisted for the Desmond Eliot Prize and the HWA Debut Crown. She has had stories published in collections: HAG (Virago 2020) and The Haunting Season (Little, Brown 2021) and is currently working on a novel with Arts Council Funding about Lady Eleanor Talbot (c.1436-68).
2018
Deepa Anappara was the winner of the 2018 DRF Writers Award for her novel Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line. Published by Chatto & Windus (UK) and Random House (US) in 2020, it has been translated into 22 languages and was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “a Literary Supernova”. Named as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time and NPR. It won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020, and shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Indian Literature. Time included it in its list of ‘The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time’.
Deepa said: “Winning the DRF Writers Award and listening to the helpful comments of the judges gave me both the permission and conviction I needed to finish my novel.”
Deepa Anappara is the co-editor of Letters to a Writer of Colour, a collection of personal essays on fiction, race, and culture, published in 2023. Her second novel, The Last of Earth, will be published by Random House in the US and Oneworld in the UK in 2025.
Dima Alzayat was a runner-up for the 2018 DRF Writers Award for Daughters of Manat & Other Stories which was published as Alligator & Other Stories. The collection was published by Picador (UK) and Two Dollar Radio (US). It was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award for Debut Short Story Collection, the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, and the 2021 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Chris Connolly was a runner-up for the 2018 DRF Writers Award for his story collection, The Speed of Light and How it Cannot Help Us.
2020
‘Pemi Aguda was the winner of the 2020 DRF Writers Award was for her novel, The Suicide Mothers. A collection of short stories, Ghostroots has been published to great acclaim by Virago (UK), WW Norton (US) and Masobe in Nigeria. The New York Times Book Review wrote “these stories herald the arrival of a major voice in speculative fiction”, while Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds concluded “A wonderful collection …. an astonishing talent”. Her novel will be published in 2026.
‘Pemi said: “As artists, our financial lives are so precarious and so receiving support of this size, especially now, fills me with peace about the near future. So, thank you.”
Stephen Buoro was awarded second place for his novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa. It was published in the UK and US by Bloomsbury, April 2023 and shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards: Debut Fiction (2023). An Observer Best Debut Novelist, that paper named The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa a Book of the Year 2023. It has been published in Germany and Spain, and is currently being translated into Italian.
S.Bhattacharya-Woodward was awarded third place for her short story collection, Zolo and Other Stories.
2021
Mathelinda Nabugodi was the winner of the 2021 DRF Writers Award for The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive, a work of non-fiction to be published by Hamish Hamilton (UK) and Knopf (US) in July 2025.
Mathelinda said: "Winning the DRF Writers Award is such a wonderful validation of my work. I am so gratified to know that my attempt to stage a fresh and honest encounter with the Romantic archive has resonated with the judges and all the prize readers."
Yasmine Awwad was a runner-up for the 2021 Writers Award for her work of fiction, The Shrills.
Sophie Meadows was a runner-up for the 2021 Writers Award for her work of fiction, The Frog.