Submitting your writing to a competition is a great achievement in itself – but what happens after you send in your work?
When you submit your final entry, it is read by at least two of our volunteer readers, who help us to create a shortlist of the entries which stand out to them as being the most original, well-argued and/or well-written responses to the theme.
We use our readers’ advice to create a final shortlist, which we send to the judges. The judges then select their winners and runners up for each of our three age categories, as well as any highly commended entries for a special mention.
Meet the judges: The Orwell Youth Prize 2025
Anthony Anaxagorou FRSL is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist and publisher. He is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press. His books include Heritage Aesthetics, which won the RSL Ondaatje Prize; After the Formalities, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
Manveen Rana is an award-winning journalist and host of The Story podcast at The Times and The Sunday Times. Formerly an investigative reporter at BBC News, she has demonstrated personal bravery, not least when her in-depth reporting led to her getting kidnapped in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Thankfully, she was ultimately released at the top of a mountain “with nothing” but her life.
Gary Snapper is a Lecturer at the Department of Education, University of Oxford; the editor of Teaching English, the magazine of the National Association for the Teaching of English; and co-author of Teaching English Literature 16-19 (Routledge 213). He has a particular interest in the teaching of poetry and in the history and philosophy of the English curriculum.
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