Following an open call which received 30 applications, we are delighted to announce the 8 selected writers for the Developing Tutors programme. The programme supports writers looking to run their first creative writing workshop with a paid teaching opportunity and enhanced support and feedback throughout the process. Spread the Word will be running the workshops from October 2025 to March 2026. The selected tutors, their workshops and date they will run are:
Naomi Eselojor
Creating Africanfuturist worlds: Blending Tradition, Innovation and Imagination
Tuesday 7 October 2025, 6.30pm-8.30pm (Online)
Alan Gray
Vacant Possession: Creating a Haunted World Without any Ghosts
Tuesday 28 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm (In person)
Thảo Tô
Sit in It, Sit with It: Setting as a Character in Your Writing
Tuesday 4 November 2025, 6.30pm-8.30pm (Online)
Saskia Marisha Fischer
Writing the more-than-human
Tuesday 2 December 2025, 6.30pm-8.30pm (In person)
Liane Wimhurst
First Lines
Tuesday 20 January 2026, 6.30Ppm-8.30pm (In person)
Dominique Duong
How to Write for Comics
Tuesday 3 February 2026, 6.30pm-8.30pm (Online)
Kingsley Pearson
Processing Queer Shame in Fiction: Writing Steps Towards Queer Joy
Tuesday 24 February 2026, 6.30pm-8.30pm (Online)
Yasmine Dankwah
Writer’s Toolkit: Using Sound, Music and Graphic Scores to Create Your Own Structure
Tuesday 18 March 2026, 6.30pm-8.30pm (Online)
Words from Bobby Nayyar, Programme Manager:
‘It’s our second year of running an open call for Developing Tutors workshops. I’ve been impressed by the range of ideas on offer, which ultimately made the selection process incredibly competitive. We have chosen a range of workshops that push boundaries and explore new avenues for creative work and teaching styles. We look forward to working closely with each tutor.’
Tickets for ALL workshops will be available to purchase from Wednesday 27th August.
Published: 21 Aug 2025
class="post-76424 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"London Writers Awards participant Swithun Cooper shortlisted for Desperate Literature Prize
Swithun Cooper is one the 2025 London Writers Awards cohort. He’s been named one of two runners up for the 2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, run by the Desperate Literature bookshop in Madrid, Spain. This years prize was won by Shastri Akella, and Alisha Dietzman was also a runner up.
Swithun Cooper is a researcher and tutor. His poems and stories have appeared in The London Magazine, Magma and The Rialto, and anthologies including Queer Life, Queer Love 2 and Unreal Sex. He has won an Eric Gregory Award, and in 2023 he was shortlisted for FBA New Voices. He joined the 2025 London Writers Awards programme in February this year. The programme runs until November.
Swithun’s story Expansion Street earned him his place as runner up. He’ll receive €1,000 (£866) and a consultation with a literary agent from Johnson & Alcock. All 11 shortlisted writers will be published by Desperate Literature in their annual collection, Eleven Stories 2025, and will be invited to read at a number of events, the first of which will be a launch event at the Desperate Literature bookshop, followed by a launch at Burley Fisher Books in London in the spring of 2026.
Another of this years London Writers Awardees, Sukie Wilson, on the same programme as Swithun, won the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize in 2024.
Applications will open in September for the 2026 London Writers Awards. To find out when, sign up to our newsletter.
Read more about the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize on their website.
Published 14 August 2025.
class="post-76028 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"Natasha Brown longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025
We are not at all surprised, but very pleased, to see London Writers Award alumna Natasha Brown among the longlisted authors for this year’s Booker Prize.
Natasha’s first book, Assembly, was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Orwell Prize for Fiction.
Universality is her second novel and a, “a twisty, slippery descent into the rhetoric of truth and power.” It received rave reviews and Observer commented that “[Universality] confirms Natasha Brown as a major talent.” They were not wrong.
The Booker Prize 2025 judges are Roddy Doyle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Kiley Reid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Power. They commented:
“Natasha Brown’s Universality is a compact yet sweeping satire. Told through a series of shifting perspectives, it reveals the contradictions of a society shaped by entrenched systems of economic, political, and media control. Brown moves the reader with cool precision from Hannah, a struggling freelancer, through to Lenny, an established columnist, unfurling through both of them an examination of the ways language and rhetoric are bound with power structures. We were particularly impressed by the book’s ability to discomfit and entertain, qualities that mark Universality as a bold and memorable achievement.”
The Booker Prize shortlist will be announced at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 23 September, with the winner revealed on Monday 10 November.
Read all about the Booker Prize longlist on their website.
Posted: Tuesday 29 July 2025
class="post-75960 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-opportunities tag-free-reads tag-low-income tag-writing-opportunities"Receive professional, editorial feedback on your writing – Free Reads 2025 is now live!
Free Reads 2025 is now open for applications!
About Free Reads
Free Reads offers writers on low incomes the opportunity to receive professional, editorial feedback on their writing, alongside other support on their writing journeys.
Spread the Word is proud to be an official partner for The Literary Consultancy Free Reads scheme. In the last 15 years, we’ve supported 80 London writers with receiving professional, editorial feedback via Free Reads. Free Reads is managed by The Literary Consultancy (TLC) and funded by Arts Council England.
What you could receive?
- Manuscript Assessment
For writers who have a complete or partially complete manuscript that they would like professional editorial feedback on. Writers can apply for the chance to have a full or partial read of their manuscript and receive feedback by a TLC reader via an assessment report.
- Submission Package Report
For writers who have a completed manuscript, have already had editorial support, and are now looking to polish their submission package before sending it out into the world. Writers can apply for the chance to be matched with a TLC Industry Editor who will read their first 8,000 words, synopsis, and ‘Dear Agent’ letter, providing them with a written report and mark-up or commentary on the submission material.
- Editor One-to-Ones
Writers can apply for the chance to have a one-hour session with a TLC Editor for troubleshooting and to generate ideas. One-to-ones are also popular with writers who have had an editorial service and need post-feedback support, or who need motivation to get through writer’s block. The writer has one hour with their editor plus one hour of prep time, where your editor will read up to 2,500 words (or the equivalent in poetry/script/treatment).
- Power Hour
A one hour writing career consultancy call with TLC Director and coach, Aki Schilz.
NB: We will allocate these services based on the support we think will be most useful to you at this point in your writing journey.
Who is eligible for a Free Read via Spread the Word?
The scheme is open to London-based writers of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, children’s fiction including picture books, playscripts and screenplays. Free Reads particularly welcomes applications from writers belonging to groups currently under-represented in publishing including disabled writers, Black, Asian and Global Majority writers, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
To apply for a Free Read via Spread the Word, you must live in London AND be on a low income.
Low income is defined by one of the following criteria:
- You are in receipt of Job Seeker’s Allowance, Disability Benefit, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Universal Credit or Child Benefits
- You earn up to or less than the London Living Wage of £13.85 per hour or a £23,000 annual salary
- You are a full-time student
- You are aged 60 or over*
*You must have an annual income of £23,000 or less, including pensions and other forms of income.
If you identify as being on low-income but do not meet one of the criteria listed above, please get in touch. We can evaluate applicants’ eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
How to Apply
Please note, if you have not used Submittable before, that you will need to create an account to apply.
Key deadlines
Spread the Word’s Free Reads applications are open from 12pm on Tuesday 29 July until 12pm on Tuesday 7 October 2025.
What do you need to submit in your application?
- The first 1,000 words of your writing if it is prose fiction or non-fiction, or up to 20 pages if your writing is poetry or script writing
- A complete synopsis of the written work submitted. The synopsis must clearly show your story’s outline and should not exceed 1,000 words. We highly recommend that you check out our Pocket Guide to Writing a Synopsis before sending yours in: https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/a-pocket-guide-to-writing-a-synopsis/
- Documentation that shows you meet the criteria to apply for a Free Read. This may be in the form of a benefit letter, payslip, HMRC self-assessment paperwork/tax statement, confirmation of your student status or a pension. Please check out our FAQs for more information on this.
- A completed TLC Free Reads Scheme form (available to download here as a PDF and here as a Word document). For those wishing to apply for a submissions package report or an editor one-to-one, please complete this form. Where we ask you to write a brief statement in support of your application, please state which of the offers you are applying for, why this would be beneficial for you and your writing, and why the time is right for you to access this opportunity. On the form, where it asks if you’d like to receive information from ‘Your regional Writing Partner’ – that’s referring to us, Spread The Word.
If you have questions, read the FAQs. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, please get in touch with Fisola Kelly-Akinnuoye at [email protected]
We look forward to receiving your submission.
Published: 29 July 2025
class="post-75401 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-opportunities"Open Call: 30th Anniversary LGBTQI+ Emerging Writer Commissions
Open Call: 30th Anniversary LGBTQI+ Emerging Writer Commissions
Spread the Word is pleased to announce that applications are now open for London-based LGBTQI+ writers to apply for our 30th Anniversary LGBTQI+ writer commissions. The deadline for applications is: Tuesday 19 August at 1pm.
The commissions aim to showcase original work by three London based LGBTQI+ writers and provide a developmental and profile-raising opportunity.
Who are the commissions for?
- London based LGBTQI+ emerging writers aged 18+ who are writing poetry, fiction or narrative non-fiction.
- By emerging, we mean writers who are unpublished and unagented, with no literary agent representing them, without an existing book contract with a publisher, and without a previously published full-length work.
- The commissions are for LGBTQI+ writers who are committed to developing their writing and taking forward their writing careers.
- We particularly welcome applications from LGBTIQI+ writers from the following communities: Trans, Black, Asian, Global Majority, disabled and/ or working class.
For full eligibility criteria, please see our Terms and Conditions.
About the commissions
Three writers will be commissioned to create a short original piece of work of fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry. This work can be entirely new or developed from existing work which has not been published.
The commissions have an open brief and there is no theme which the work has to respond to. We encourage writers to be bold with your ideas, to experiment and take risks in your approach to style and content. Your idea can focus on individual interests and creative lines of enquiry that draw on history, look to the future, or focus on the present. Development support will be given to support writers to realise their ideas.
The commission development period will run from end of September to December.
An access fund is in place to make reasonable adjustments.
We are looking to commission writers who can show a clear idea of what they want to do for this piece of work, that is realistic within the timeframe and support available.
Commissioned writers will each receive:
· £1,500 commission fee
· Two sessions with a mentor
· Development support from Spread the Word
· A platform to showcase their work as part of Spread the Word’s 30th Anniversary celebrations
Commissions writers will be expected to:
· Produce an original piece of commissioned writing (prose (1,000 to 1,500 words) or two poems (no longer than 62 lines each))
· Meet project deadlines
· Showcase the commissioned work at a 30th Anniversary sharing event and discuss your work and creative practice
· Support the promotion of the completed commissions
Commission judges
The commissions will be judged by Remi Graves and Liam Konemann.
About Remi Graves
Remi Graves is a poet and drummer. A former Barbican Young Poet, their work has been commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral, Barbican and BBC Radio 4. They have performed at Tate, Cheltenham Literature festival and more. Remi has led courses at The Poetry School and facilitates in schools and community spaces across London and the South East. Remi’s debut pamphlet with your chest (2022) was published by fourteen poems. They have been selected for residencies with Jan Michalski Foundation and La Napoule Foundation/La Maison Baldwin. Remi is the winner of 2024 Prototype Prize (short form category). Their collection coal was published by Monitor Books in 2025.
About Liam Konemann
Liam Konemann is a writer and editor based in London. He is the author of the non-fiction book The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture (2021) and a novel, The Arena of the Unwell (2022; both 404 Ink). He currently teaches on writing courses at City Lit and London Metropolitan University.
Commissions timeline:
· Tuesday 19 August at 1pm: Applications close
· w/c 1 September: All applicants are notified with the outcome of their submission
· Wednesday 10 September: Six shortlisted writers invited to short online interview
· From w/c 15 September: Three commissioned writers confirmed and contracted
· September: Mentors confirmed and work on commissions begins
· November: Meetings with mentors and continuing work on commissions
· December: Commissions signed off
· Date to be confirmed: Commissions showcased
Preparing to apply
If it is useful for you, you can view the application form questions and prepare your responses by downloading this draft application form:PDF and Doc version.
How to apply
Please submit your application via this Submittable link.
Deadline for applications: 1pm on Tuesday 19 August
Please note you will need to create a Submittable account to make your application. This is free to do. If you are having any issues with this, please contact: [email protected]
What happens after you’ve applied
We will read every submission and invite up to six writers to a short online interview on Wednesday 10 September.
Who to contact if you have questions
If you have any questions about the commissions and/or access, please contact: [email protected]
Published 21 July 2025
Aimee Cliff took part in the pilot Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards in 2022, run jointly by Spread the Word and Wellcome Collection.
How to Read Minds is her new book about empathy and neurodivergence – the book that she developed whilst on the programme. We’re thrilled to learn that William Collins will publish the book in March 2026.
Aimee Cliff is a writer and psychotherapist based in London. She began her career as a music and culture journalist, working as Associate Editor of The FADER and Editor of Dazed Digital. Of the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards, Aimee said: “The Spread the Word x Wellcome Collection Writing Awards gave me vital support at a critical point in turning the tiniest seed of an idea into a reality. Knowing where to start with a non-fiction project can be overwhelming, and without this award, I may never have got off the ground. Thanks to this programme, I had time to write, invaluable insights into craft and the industry, and a cohort of talented, generous people offering me feedback. Perhaps most importantly, I was introduced through the programme to my brilliant agent – who helped me sell my book the following year.”
Commissioning Editor at William Collins, Eva Hodgkin, commented: “How to Read Minds is one of the most quietly radical books I’ve read. By interrogating the science and stereotypes surrounding autism and empathy, it offers an alternative way for all of us to practice real empathy. Aimee is imagining something entirely new and liberatory, and I can’t wait to see her book’s impact in the world.”
On How to Read Minds, Aimee said: “This book is an invitation to expand our working definition of empathy. If we assume that none of us is biologically predisposed to empathise, and all of us must actively cultivate that skill, how could that change us for the better? This has never felt more urgent to me: in a climate of imperialist violence and fascist ideology, strengthening our capacity to connect to one another is an act of liberation and resistance.”
Huge congratulations Aimee!
Read all about it in the Bookseller.
Published: Thursday 17 July 2025