QMUL English Writing Prize Competition

The Department of English at Queen Mary University of London is delighted to invite submissions to its writing competition, now in its third year. Designed to foster and reward the best new writing by students in Years 11, 12 and 13 from across the UK, we will be awarding one prize for an original piece of Creative Writing and one prize for an original Essay. 

A shortlist of entries will be drawn up by an expert panel from the Department of English. Winners will be selected by the acclaimed author Costanza Casati, who was a student in the English Department at QMUL from 2017 to 2019. Her debut novel, Clytemnestra (2024) was the winner of the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown Award. Babylonia (2025), her second novel, was a Sunday Times bestseller.

This year's theme is 'Borders', see below for more details. The deadline for submissions is 6pm on Friday 16th April. All entrants will receive tailored feedback from an expert reader.

The winners will be announced in Summer 2027. They will each be awarded £250 in book vouchers. Those who are short-listed will also receive a certificate of commendation. 

If you have any queries please email us at:

eng-writingprize@qmul.ac.uk.

2026/27 Theme: ‘Borders’

Borders are as much imagined as they are human-made creations. Think of maps and national borders, marking the divisions between countries, territories, land and seas; think of boundaries, of walls, fences and palisades; of the invisible lines of separation between communities, and beliefs; and of those between states of waking, sleeping, and various consciousnesses in-between.

Borders can also be creative, motivating one to exceed and explore beyond their limits. They can be patterns of embroidered fabric, a beautiful horizon at sunset, or the portals between two worlds. They hold the promise of possibilities, of things still in the process of being imagined, of unknown, fantastic worlds yet to emerge into existence. The poet Robert Frost debates the value of creating borders in his poem ‘Mending Wall’, which begins with nature’s own tendency to breakdown divides (‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’) but ends with a statement on peaceful coexistence within defined space (‘Good fences make good neighbors’).

If you’re submitting creative writing, we encourage you to explore the various meanings of ‘borders’. What do borders mean to you? What are the physical, metaphorical or imaginative meanings of borders? In what way, would you like to reimagine borders? What role does it play in our imagination or what role does it play in our world? What kind of thinking does it enable?

Creative writing entries may include up to three short poems (no more than 30 lines each) or one long poem (around 100 lines), a piece of extended prose (no more than 1000 words), or a playscript (around 100 lines). We are open to other suggestions, but please write to confirm before submitting.

Those submitting an essay should consider the way borders feature in literary writing, whether as a plot device, theme or in other more imaginative terms. In responding to this theme, we encourage you to be as inventive as you wish. You are welcome to think about the idea of borders in literature across time and in different contexts.