Writing prizes general guidelines 2025 to 2026

Entry for the 2025 to 2026 academic year is open! Deadline is Friday 20 March 2026, 11:59pm.

  • Submission are currently open!
  • The deadline for all 2025-26 Prizes will be 20 March 2026.
  • Prize winners will be announced on 24 April 2026.

  • You can enter every prize you are eligible for. If you're eligible for all three, you can enter all three.
  • You can enter one piece per prize. If your entry is a string of smaller pieces, such as a sonnet sequence or multiple haiku, they will be considered as a single entry.
  • You can enter the same piece for multiple prizes.
  • By entering a prize, you agree that your eligibility will be verified. If you can't prove eligibility, we have to withdraw your entry from consideration.
  • No work which has previously been published, broadcast, or accepted for publication, including online (for example, blogs and social media) is eligible.

If you win, you will be contacted by the finance team to provide banking details.


  • You retain copyright over your work, but the University of Edinburgh reserves the right to arrange the first publication.
  • If you win or are shortlisted for a prize, your name will be used in University publicity on social media and appear on this website and our Writing Blog.

The prizes will be judged by Mary Paulson-Ellis, the University’s current Writer in Residence. Mary is an award-winning author who writes across the genres of crime, historical and literary fiction. She has published three novels, and a variety of short fiction and non fiction including for the Guardian and BBC Radio 4.

She has worked with Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature and as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, hosted literary events with authors such as Ian Rankin and Barbara Kingsolver, and is Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland.


How to submit your entry


Please email your entry to the Writing Prizes address (writing.prizes@ed.ac.uk).

If you are entering more than one prize, you need to send a separate email for each submission.

 

What to include in your email

1. The subject line of your email should be the name of the prize, followed by the title of your work.

For example, if you’re submitting for the Grierson Verse Prize and your work is titled “The Wing of Azrael”, your subject line would be: Grierson Verse Prize - The Wing of Azrael

2. The body of your email should contain the following pieces of information:

  • Your name
  • The title of your work
  • The name of the prize
  • Your university email address (this is crucial if you are emailing from a non-university address)
  • For the Grierson Verse Prize, please include what verse form you have used.

The email should also contain one of the following sentences, which confirms you are eligible for the price:

  • Grierson Verse Prize: either “I am a matriculated student of the University of Edinburgh” or “I am a matriculated student of the University of Aberdeen”
  • Lewis Edwards Memorial Prize: “I am a matriculated undergraduate student of the University of Edinburgh”
  • Sloan Prize: either “I am a matriculated student of the University of Edinburgh” or “I am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh of less than three years’ standing”

Please do not include any other information in your email (ie your biography).

3. Your entry (the actual piece of prose or poetry) should be a document (pdf, doc, or docx.) attached to your email.

  • All entries are judged anonymously, so please check that your name isn't anywhere in this document.
  • The document’s file name should be the prize name followed by the title of your piece, for example: Grierson Verse Prize-Wing of Azrael.
  • Please include a header on every page with the prize name, title, and page number, for example: Grierson Verse Prize-Wing of Azrael p. 1.
  • Font should be easy to read - try using Arial or Times New Roman, 12-point.
  • Prose should be double spaced. Poetry can be single spaced.
  • For the Grierson Verse Prize, please note what verse form was used above your poem.
  • For the Sloan Prize, please put your entry first followed by your statement about the dialect.

If you accidentally forget to attach your document, please send a new email with all of the required information included.

After you submit

You will receive an auto-reply from writing.prizes@ed.ac.uk to confirm your entry has been received. Please note that if you send more than one email (multiple entries or resubmission of an incorrect entry), you will only receive one auto-reply. 

If there’s anything technically wrong with your entry, ie the document won’t open or has been corrupted, or if you forgot to attach the document, we will email you to ask you to resubmit. (Please note: the resubmission must be received by the prize deadline.)

Shortlisted entrants and winners will be notified by email by Friday 24 April 2026. If you have not heard from us by the deadline, your submission was not shortlisted.

Good luck and thank you for entering!

Do you have a question?

If you need further advice or have any issues with your submission, please get in touch with Writer in Residence Mary Paulson-Ellis.

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