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Submissions now closed for the 2025 BBC Young Writers’ Award

The submission window for the 2025 BBC Young Writers' Award with Cambridge University has now closed.

The shortlisted writers will be announced in September 2025, with the winner announced at a ceremony on Tuesday 30th September, broadcast live from Broadcasting House in London.

Information about previous winners and shortlisted writers is available below, along with some tips and resources for getting started with your own creative writing.

Click here to read the privacy notice for this year's Young Writers' Award.

Lauren Layfield announced as new chair

Taking over chairing duties for the Award is BBC R1 presenter Lauren Layfield. Lauren hosts Life Hacks each Sunday, and is the new chair, after Katie Thistleton stepped down from the role after the 2024 Award. Joining Lauren are former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, author Jessica Moor, author and previous winner Lottie Mills, and award-winning poet Matt Goodfellow. On chairing the award for the first time, Lauren says:

“Writing is a part of our everyday lives but so few people consider putting pen to paper and following a career in it. Having written my own book and being a regular columnist, I recognise the value that this art form brings to honest and reliable communication, that it can be a place to express your thoughts, opinions and creativity. I am delighted to chair the next Young Writers’ Award and to encourage the new generation to get scribing!”

For inspiration, you can listen to last year’s winning entry, ‘Special’ here.

You’ll find all last year’s shortlisted stories below, as well as our resources page full of helpful tips and hints for getting started on your own short story.

About the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University

Now in its eleventh year, the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University challenges young people in the UK aged between 14-18 years to submit stories of up to 1,000 words. Submissions for the 2024 award are open until 9am (GMT) Monday 24th March 2025.

Listen to 2024's shortlisted stories

‘A Human, a Robot and a Gosling Walk into a Post-Apocalyptic Bar’ by Basmala Alkhalaf

A dystopian ‘laugh out loud funny’ story featuring a sardonic human and a robot who discover an orphaned gosling and have humorously contrasting reactions, exploring human greed, survival and the possibility that robots could be kinder than humans. Basmala was inspired by the idea that robots may outlast humans if the world ends, and by learning about Konrad Lorenz’s theory of imprinting in psychology class. Her writing was influenced by the work of Rick Riordan and Terry Pratchett.

‘The Quiet’ by Amaan Foyez

Experimental in form and written in a style ‘between prose and poetry,’ this dark, contemporary retelling of Red Riding Hood explores control, suppression, fear and the importance of free speech. Set in a world controlled by a sinister higher power who have forbidden noise, a girl walking through the woods to visit her grandmother remains silent when she is attacked by a wolf and pays the ultimate price for her obedience. Written in response to a GCSE narrative prompt and inspired by Geoge Orwell’s 1984, Amaan intends the story to be a cautionary tale about extreme censorship.

‘Special’ by Lulu Frisson

A neurodiverse girl who is struggling at school is introduced to the joys of reading and writing by an empathetic teacher and undergoes a ‘profound change’ as she discovers the power of creativity as a tool for self-discovery, in this story inspired by personal experience. Told in the third person, this richly poetic ‘ode to books,’ exploring the true meaning of the word ‘special’ and the negative connotations around the language of neurodiversity was praised by the judges for its ‘confident writing.’ Although set against a background of education budget cuts, a lack of SEND provision in schools and the cultural stigmatisation of those with special needs, Lulu’s story is a call for empathy and a reminder of the beauty of human differences.

‘Confession’ by Vivienne Hall

This dark, gothic story told with a ‘sense of foreboding’ from the viewpoint of a priest with a skewed sense of justice who selects a vulnerable visitor to his church to be the ultimate sacrifice, explores themes of faith, trust and exploitation. Inspired by the idea that trusted authority figures may not be all they seem to be,

Vivienne wrote the story during her Curriculum Enrichment Programme’s creative writing lessons at school, aiming to create a filmic drama she could envisage on the screen.

‘Nathalie’s Flatmate’ by Aidan Vogelzang

A ‘sophisticated’ and ‘genuinely funny’ story about the start of a new relationship and the fear of change as observed by a possessive cat. When sensible student Nathalie falls for a boy her cat deems unsuitable, the jealous cat is initially hostile, until the boy wins it over. Inspired by his own cat’s ‘general passive-aggressive antics’ Aidan wrote the story over a weekend on Google Docs, purposefully aiming for a light tone as a counterbalance to the depressing stories in the news.

About the judges

LAUREN LAYFIELD is a British Guyanese TV presenter, radio broadcaster, DJ, journalist and writer.  She co-hosts Life Hacks and The Official Chart: First Look for BBC Radio 1, leading the conversation about issues that affect young people today before counting down the twenty biggest songs in the UK. A regular television presenter, she has also worked on The One Show, Match of the Day, Children in Need and Eurovision coverage.

Her debut teen novel ‘Indi Raye is Totally Faking It’ was published in August 2023 by Hachette UK. Lauren is an ambassador for period poverty organisation Bloody Good Period and for mental health charity Young Minds.  

JESSICA MOOR grew up in south-west London and studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University, where her dissertation was awarded the Creative Writing Prize for Fiction. Prior to this she spent a year working in the violence against women and girls sector, and this experience inspired her critically acclaimed first novel, Keeper.

She was selected as one of the Observer’s ten best debut novelists of 2020, and Keeper was longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, shortlisted for an Edgar Award and received the Nouvelle Voix du Polar award. Her second novel, Young Women, was published to critical acclaim in 2022 and her third, Hold Back the Night, was published by Bonnier in 2024. She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol and teaches on the Faber Academy’s prestigious Writing a Novel course. She lives in London.

LOTTIE MILLS  is the author of the short story collection Monstrum. She studied English at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 2020, she won the BBC Young Writers’ Award for her short story ‘The Changeling’, having been previously shortlisted in 2018. She has written for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, and British Vogue, and has appeared on programmes such as Life Hacks, Front Row, and Woman’s Hour to discuss her writing. She is currently studying for an MPhil in English at the University of Cambridge.

JOSEPH COELHO is a best-selling, multi-award winning children’s playwright and author of over 50 books. His The Boy Lost in The Maze was the winner of the 2024 Carnegie Medal for writing and has received international acclaim appearing on the White Raven Book list - Munich, The IBBY UK Honour Books List and awarded The Extraordinary Book of 2023 by The International Children's Literature Festival of Berlin. Joseph was the Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022 - 2024.

MATT GOODFELLOW is a former primary school teacher and now a full-time author and poet who visits schools around the UK to give hugely popular, high-energy performances and workshops. His debut novel The Final Year published in 2023 to critical acclaim and bestseller success, winning the prestigious CLiPPA award in 2024. The First Year, the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling The Final Year, publishes in April 2025. Matt lives in Stockport.