March: Bournemouth Writing Prize
In The Bournemouth Journal's March edition: news on the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize shortlist and winners. What is the prize? What do you win? What do the judges look for? Plus diary dates!
Welcome to The Bournemouth Journal’s March newsletter. Exciting news this month: we can announce that the shortlist and winners of the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize have now been selected. The winners names are now out!
On Saturday 1 March 2025, we reveal the shortlist and on Saturday 8 March 2025, we announce the winners. For names, please check out the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize page on The Bournemouth Journal’s website on both Saturdays. Winners’ names revealed here!
We had thousands of short story and poetry entries. A huge thanks to you if you were one of the entrants! We’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed for you!
What is the Bournemouth Writing Prize?
If you haven’t heard of it yet, The Bournemouth Writing Prize is an international competition which honours exceptional prose and poetry. Entries are judged by publishing-industry professionals. The prize is run by staff and students of the MA in Creative Writing and Publishing at Bournemouth University in the UK.
Programme Leader and Editor in Chief of The Bournemouth Journal, Dr. Brad Gyori, says: “We enjoy supporting writers in the Southwest of England or those who write about themes close to our home and hearts. However, the reach is global, and our tastes are eclectic, so wherever you are on the planet, you’re encouraged to send in your very best work.”
Prizes
Substantial cash prizes are offered for both Short Story and Poetry categories. The 2025 prize winners, being announced this month, will each receive £500.
In addition, this year’s finalists will each be given two free tickets and an Open Mic slot of up to 10 minutes at the Bourn Jammy event. This is where a live band will improvise music to the winning entries. It takes place on Saturday 26 April at the Pavilion Dance.
The finalists will also have two free tickets to any talk or workshop at the Pavilion Dance over the course of the three-day Bournemouth Writing Festival that takes place from 25-27 April.
To bring all the writing prize talent together, a winners’ anthology is being published and everyone selected for inclusion within it will receive a free, printed copy.
Short Story Prize:
Alongside these prizes, the winner of the Short Story category will have a 1-2-1, one-hour-long consultation with literary agent Laura Williams who judged this group. Laura started at the literary agency Greene & Heaton in 2018. Prior to that, she worked at Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) after studying Classics at Oxford.
Laura says: “I have a broad list across different genres of fiction, alongside a smaller non-fiction and children’s book list and I’m always looking for new and exciting projects.”
Poetry Prize:
The Poetry category finalist will also have an hour-long consultation and feedback session with the poetry judges, David and Gena Herring. They run the Dorset indie publishing house Dithering Chaps and will edit and publish the anthology.
David Herring is Lead Editor at Dithering Chaps. A well-known face at the county’s poetry groups, he’s been published widely in literary journals, including Orbis, New Isles Press, Strand Magazine and South Poetry magazine. He was also a prize winner at the 2023 Bournemouth Writing Festival open mic competition and selected to perform at the Bourn Jammy event.
Gena Herring is Associate Editor of Dithering Chaps and has a degree from Aberystwyth University in English and Librarianship. As a publisher, she says she brings “a keen ear to the soundscapes of poetry and an eagle eye for grammatical or typological infelicities”.
They both chose the poetry shortlist from entries pre-selected by Bournemouth University students. “Perhaps we didn't agree with all their choices,” David says, “but we had no problem in identifying fifteen high-quality and anthology-worthy poems.”
According to Gena, the editorial team at Dithering Chaps bring different skill sets: “David tends to focus on form and poetic technique; I'm primarily about the love! What's interesting is that, when we compare notes, we almost always choose the same poems.”
What’s Gena looking for when she judges poetry?
“Of course, Poetry Competition 101 - the entries must comply with the rules,” she says. “Boring, I know, but if the competition asks for up to thirty lines, the judges won’t even see a poem with thirty-one!”
She points out that on the first read the title is especially important: “I am looking for something to spark my interest here; ideally, it will foreshadow the subject matter and tone of the poem or will create an interesting friction with it. Either way, it is the starter before I get to the main course, and I want to be hungry to read on …”
When it comes to the poem, she says: “The writing and style should take me somewhere I haven’t been before, surprise me with its language and metaphors, and evoke a strong emotional connection with the poet.”
She wants to be made to feel what the poet felt, whether their intention is to make her laugh, cry or anything in between. “The very best poetry will make me see the world differently and be a catalyst for change.”
What can the winner expect from their hour-long consultation with David and Gena?
“We'll tailor the consultation to the winner's needs.” Gena says. “It's likely that we will ask them to send us a wider portfolio of their writing and we'll treat this as if it were a normal chapbook submission to Dithering Chaps.
“We are unusual, as publishers, in that we offer brief written feedback to everyone who submits to us. So, our feedback will be the starting point for a wider discussion about our responses to the writing.”
Where could this kind of chat lead for the winners?
“Hopefully, we will be able to give a series of constructive suggestions about each poem - and guide the winner on the path to further publication. You never know, Dithering Chaps might be the perfect home for their writing...”
What made them choose the winning entry?
“We explain our choice of overall winner - a really stand-out, bravura piece - in our foreword to the anthology. If you want to know why we chose that poem... you'll just have to grab yourself a copy!” David says.
Bournemouth University and the Bournemouth Writing Festival will launch the anthology at the festival at the end of next month. It will be for sale on Amazon. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover.
2026 Bournemouth Writing Prize - opens for submissions next month!
Last, but certainly not least among this array of literary opportunities, we can reveal that the 2026 Bournemouth Writing Prize - the 10th anniversary of the contest - opens for submissions during the Bournemouth Writing Festival. Please keep checking our social media pages, newsletters and The Bournemouth Writing Prize page regularly for more information.
The Bournemouth Journal
Our staff and students are also considering the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize entrants for inclusion in the inaugural issues of our new, contemporary fiction review. Issue One of The Bournemouth Journal will be out in May 2025 and Issue Two in September 2025. We’ll have news on the opening date for general submissions to The Bournemouth Journal in next month’s newsletter. Get in early and check out our submission guidelines.
See our social media sites on the diary dates below for announcements:
Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky
Diary Dates:
Saturday 5 April:
Winning writers from the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize, chosen to be featured in Issue One of The Bournemouth Journal, will be announced.
Saturday 19 April:
Winning writers from the 2025 Bournemouth Writing Prize, chosen to be featured in Issue Two of The Bournemouth Journal, will be announced.
Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky
Finally, just a reminder that we’ll publish this newsletter at the start of every month. In April’s edition we’ll have a preview of The Bournemouth Writing Festival.
Don’t forget to have a look at our outreach, blog and podcast pages. We’d love you to get out there, make friends across our platform and meet other writers. We’re asking for your participation to build our writing, reading and outreach communities. Please hit the ‘subscribe’ and ‘share’ buttons on this newsletter and let’s get a buzz going!
Happy writing, reading, connecting - and hopefully - submitting!
Julie Salt
Newsletter Editor
Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky