Read all the winners’ and runners’ up entries here.
Read more“2023 Creative Writing Prizes”
Winner of the 2023 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Pollyanna Jackson is an English Literature student based in Edinburgh & Oxfordshire. She was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2022, and selected by Mark Gatiss for his writing programme with the Dartington Trust that same year. She enjoys writing fiction and …
Winner of the 2023 Grierson Verse Prize Rachel Rankin is a poet and translator from Coatbridge, currently based in Edinburgh. She received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2019, a Dewar Arts Award in 2017, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Jane Martin Poetry Prize. Most recently, she …
Winner of the 2023 Sloan Prize Declan Kelly was born in Edinburgh and has lived there his whole life, especially enjoying the city for its atmosphere and people. He first began writing in high school and continued to do so after winning a school writing prize. He is currently studying …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Devki Panchmatia is a poet based in Edinburgh and London. She was a runner up for the Orwell Youth Prize in 2019, has performed her poetry at the Hidden Door Festival, and is the assistant editor of Outcrop Poetry magazine. You can …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Sloan Prize Suzy Enoch is a Scottish writer and actress who grew up in Aberdeen. After spending many years writing for stage and screen, she is currently completing the Creative Writing Masters in Edinburgh Uni. Stanes is her first foray into writing in Scots, and she …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Rosie Gandon is a student and writer from East Sussex, currently studying Japanese and Linguistics in her first year at Edinburgh University. She has been writing ever since she was young, though this is her first time ever submitting a piece to …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Grierson Verse Prize Kate Genevieve is a Uk-based writer born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She received her BA and a BEd degrees from the University of British Columbia before pursuing a master’s degree in poetry at the University of Edinburgh. Her poetry can be found …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Grierson Verse Prize Alice Eaves is an artist and writer from Blackpool, England. She is currently completing her MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She has been published or forthcoming in The Literary Platform, The Manchester Review and Origin Stories: An Anthology of Beginnings with …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Grierson Verse Prize Malika is a second year English Literature and History student from Miami, Florida. She enjoys writing, painting, and designing. She likes to explore themes of identity, place, and nature in her poetry. Apr 28, 2023
Runner-Up for the 2023 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Holly Sargent is a fourth year student of English Literature from Bracknell, England. Her literary interests drew her to study in Scotland, where her writing has been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also enjoys rocks, kitsch, and useless things a …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Sloan Prize Meghan Link is a Spanish and English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh, from rural Angus. Taking inspiration from her family connections to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, she is fascinated by the themes of language and identity. She writes in her spare …
Runner-Up for the 2023 Sloan Prize Balancing work on a novel about an occultist soldier coming back to life in modern England, Edward McLaren studies an MSc in English Modernism at Edinburgh with an emphasis on the role of the Chinese character zhong in the poetry of Ezra Pound. Besides …
Winner of the 2022 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Armaan Verma is a student of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He published his first book, ‘Glorious Greeks: Meet the Gods’, when he was eleven. His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines like The Quint, HIMAL Southasian, and The Skinny, …
Winner of the 2022 SloanPrize Jo Higgs (he/him) is a student from Edinburgh currently undertaking an MScR in English Literature, delving into the underappreciated works of Agnes Owens. He also writes things unrelated to his studies, predominantly about music (mainly to be read in Secret Meeting) and some fiction too. …
Winner of the 2022 Grierson Verse Prize Olivia Thomakos is an English teacher and poet from Ohio, USA. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She is published or forthcoming in Berfrois, Dreich Magazine, Loud Coffee Press, and small leaf poetry studio among other blogs and university …
Runner Up for the 2022 Sloan Prize Dorothy Lawrenson was born in Dundee and grew up in Fife. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University, and an MA in Fine Art from the University of Edinburgh. …
Runner Up for the 2022 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Siru grew up by a tributary of the Yangtze River, in a town engulfed by mountains. They now read philosophy and linguistics in Edinburgh. They don’t know where they will end up in this tiny big world. Siru writes to reclaim …
Runner Up for the 2022 Sloan Prize Heather Dunnett is a queer Aberdonian poet currently working towards her MSc in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Edinburgh University. She has lived in Edinburgh for the past five years and writing poetry in the dialect of her hometown is one way she stays …
Runner Up for the 2022 Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize Ailsa Fraser (she/her) is a queer writer of speculative fiction, studying History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. She has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her fiction work has been published in The Inkwell, and her non-fiction work can be …