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Creative Futures Writers' Award: 2024 winners announced
The winners of the Creative Future Writers’ Awards (CFWA), the UK’s only national awards for under-represented writers, who traditionally lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity, health or social circumstance, have been announced today.
This year the prize, now marking its 11th year, received a record 1,600 submissions from unpublished writers from around the UK: a 19% increase on 2023 and a 53% increase on five years ago. The number of prize winners has increased to 15, with a prize fund of £23,000 worth of cash and top writing development prizes to be shared by the winners.The themes explored this year include gender identity, betrayal, rites of passage and lived experiences of transition, cancer treatment and being in care.
The 2024 Creative Future Writers’ Award winners
CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Platinum: The Nightjar (excerpt from ‘The Night Run’) by Louis Bailey
Gold: A Space That Speaks by Ciara McVeigh
Silver: Flowers Don’t Wither, Portraits Don’t Bleed by Shwetha Bai
Bronze: Fox and Me by Kaylia Dunstan
Highly Commended: Monobrow by Vanita Parti
POETRY
Platinum: Childe of Hale by Maya Little
Gold: Karst by Rona Luo
Silver: Dig Up Black Boy Bones from Brown by Francis-Xavier Mukiibi
Bronze: Graduation Dinner by Lara Mae Simpson
Highly Commended: Mother Fregoli by Kasmira Kincaid
FICTION
Platinum: Kai by Patrick Cash
Gold: Àlàdé Must Die by Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim
Silver: Prayers by Sophia Khan
Bronze: Bungalow by Melanie Banim
Highly Commended: Diamond and Pearl by Harper Walton
Nina Mingya Powles, awards judge and poet, writer and essayist, said: "Judging the Creative Future Awards this year was an invigorating and challenging process. The shortlist of many innovative writers offered a glimpse of some of the most exciting writing being produced in the UK today. In the Poetry and Fiction categories, writers boldly pushed boundaries of genre and form.
"In Creative Non-Fiction there was an incredible range of stories and voices covering subjects I’d not encountered before. I was drawn all the way in and longed to keep reading. It’s been a joy and an honour to be involved in this prize that is helping to reshape our literary landscape."
Wayne Holloway-Smith, awards judge and poet and editor, said: "I like bands’ initial albums, and I like artists at the start of their careers. I like seeing footballers stepping into the first team for the first time, and I like watching debut directors at the movies. It’s invigorating to me to see raw talent finding its way, in this way—that often, initial burst of ambition, and excitement—the kernel of a voice emerging, the level of risk practitioners are free to take at this stage. No wonder the process of judging Creative Future was such a source of joy—the originality and imagination, the vocabulary of these newcomers, crikey!"
Creative Future’s c.e.o. Rose Kigwana said: "Having had the pleasure of observing the judging panel meeting and reading the excellent variety of shortlisted entries, I look forward to meeting the 2024 competition winners and celebrating their talent with them."
The additional judges were prize partners Joey Connolly (Faber Academy), Tessa Foley (Poetry School), Jennifer Kerslake (Curtis Brown Creative), and Aki Schilz (The Literary Consultancy).
An awards ceremony featuring the winning writers and head judges will take place at the Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival on Saturday, 26th October at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from the Southbank Centre website, and the event will also be live-streamed. The winning submissions, alongside work by the 2024 award judges, are published in an anthology that can be purchased from Creative Future.
