Here is the latest newsletter for my followers to peruse:
Hello Young Writers,
We recently opened our Young Northern Writers' Awards for entries, and we're super excited to see loads of submissions from all of you. Getting to read through your brilliant work, and award some of you with great prizes, is a highlight of the year. Find out more about what's on offer and how you can enter below – why not give it a go?
We've also rounded up a few other exciting competitions that any of you budding playwrights, poets or essayists you might be interested in entering.
This chilly weather is the perfect opportunity to cosy up under a blanket and work on perfecting your pieces!
Best wishes,
Young People and Communities team
The Young Northern Writers' Awards 2026 are open for entries!
Do you write stories, poems, songs, speeches, or something else? We want to hear from you!
Enter your best piece of writing to our awards and you could win money, support to develop your writing, and the chance to attend a special award ceremony in Newcastle.
It's completely free to enter, and open to anyone aged 11-18 living in the North East, North West or Yorkshire. Parents, carers and teachers are also welcome to nominate a young person for an award.
Young Northern Writers' Awards
For anyone aged 11-18. There are two age categories, 11-14 and 15-18.
The winner in each category will receive £150, and two writers may also be highly commended.
Matthew Hale Award
For anyone aged 11-18 who has had limited opportunities to pursue writing due to health, family, financial or other circumstances.
The winner receives £500 worth of development support, which could include mentoring, course enrolment, books or event tickets.
Eva Ibbotson Award
For anyone aged 11-15 who is writing in English as an additional language.
The winner receives £500 worth of development support, which could include mentoring, course enrolment, books or event tickets.
Young Writers' Groups
There's still a few spaces available in our Gateshead and South Shields Young Writers' Groups. It's never too late to sign up!
If you join us now, you'll get to take part in a new exciting writing collaboration with South Shields Museum in the new year, which all our groups will be part of... More info to come!
Upcoming events
Thanks to all our group members who have signed up for the playwriting workshop with Ishy Din on 6 December and the Christmas theatre trip to Northern Stage on 13 December. We're really looking forward to it! If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at youngwriters@newwritingnorth.com.
Unfortunately spaces are now full for these events – but if you didn't manage to sign up don't worry, because we're hoping to run more fun events like these in future.
Young Playwrights Award
Do you have an idea or a story to tell? Can you imagine it performed live, by actors on a stage? It’s time to start your playwriting journey.
The Young Playwrights Award is a free, open-access competition for any teenager in the UK interested in writing a play. Your play can be about anything you want or imagine: something that inspires you, a story not told before, or ideas that challenge the world around you.
There are two age categories, 13-15 and 16-18, and winners will be showcased at a festival in July, with staged readings by professional directors and actors. Plus, everyone who enters the competition will get personal feedback.
Entries open from 27 January–22 April 2026, so start working on your play now!
Tower Poetry Competition
The Tower Poetry Competition offers the UK’s most valuable prize for young poets aged 16-18.
The poet who writes the single best poem on the theme 'A Riddle' receives £5,000. There will be a second prize of £3,000, and a third prize of £1,500. Along with these, there will be ten runners up, who will each receive £500. The top three winners will also be offered a place on the Tower Poetry Summer School.
Interpret the theme however you want, and enter your poetry by 19 February.
Young Romantics Poetry and Essay Prizes
The Young Romantics Poetry and Essay Prizes are open to anyone aged 16-18.
Submit poems on the subject of either “Dystopia” or “Utopia”, or essays up to 1000 words responding to one of the provided questions. The winner of each prize will receive £700, and two highly commended entrants will receive £300, plus all winning and highly commended pieces will be published by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Assocation.
Enter your work by 2 February.
If you have news that you would like to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter please contact youngwriters@newwritingnorth.com.
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our knowledge. Details of external competitions and opportunities which we share are not endorsed or affiliated with New Writing North Young Writers.
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