4^th Estate and The Guardian are thrilled to announce that the 2025 4thWrite Prize, a competition open to Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers living in the UK or Ireland who are 18 and above, is now open for submissions.

This is the ninth year of the prize. Over the previous years, we have been overwhelmed by the quality of the stories we have found and the impact the prize has had. Last year’s winner was Yan F. Zhang with her story, Fleeting Marrow – you can read her story here.

We have had some extremely exciting writers longlisted and shortlisted for the prize who have gone on to have their work published, including the likes of Bolu Babalola, author Love in Colour and Honey & Spice published by Headline, Guy Gunaratne, author of In Our Mad and Furious City published by Tinder Press, Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions published by 4^th Estate, Gurnaik Johal, author of We Move published by Serpent’s Tail and Kit Fan, author of Diamond Hill published by Dialogue.

Previous winners of the prize include Yian Yi for her story, The Good Son in 2023, and Olivia Douglass for their story Ink, in 2022.

We are incredibly proud of the prize here at 4th Estate and it is our hope that it continues to open new opportunities for writers of colour. The winner will receive £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop at 4^th Estate and publication of their story on the Guardian website. After the winner is announced, the full shortlist will be published here on the 4th Estate website.

The deadline for submissions is the 8^th June, the longlist will be announced by the 10^th August, the shortlist by the 30^th September, and the winner in October (date tbc) at a prize ceremony in London.

Our judges this year are: Caleb Femi, writer, director and photographer, Jazmin Sawyers, Olympian, sports commentator and presenter, Monica MacSwan, Associate Agent at Aitken Alexander, Kishani Widyaratna, Publishing Director at 4^th Estate and Lucy Knight, Commissioning Editor at The Guardian. We are especially thrilled to announce that bestselling author Candice Carty-Williams will also joining the judging panel this year – an extra special addition as Candice is the founder of the Prize, which she created and launched during her time working at 4^th Estate.

Please ensure you read all of the terms and conditions before submitting (submission form is below), but if you have any questions then simply email 4thWritePrize@harpercollins.co.uk and someone will get back to you.