Announcing the Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award 2025/26

Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award

Submissions have opened for this year’s Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award, offering 1st Prize of £2,500 and two Runner Up prizes of £500 each for a short story written by an Oxford University student or member of staff.

Oxford - BNU Creative Writing Award
Opening for submissions 30^th October 2025
Closing to submissions 31^st January 2026

1^st Prize £2,500
2 Runner Up Prizes £500

For a short story of minimum 2,000 and maximum 10,000 words in English prose

Eligibility

• Undergraduate or postgraduate student on course as of date submitted in one of Oxford University’s 45 Colleges or Permanent Private Halls.
• Staff in any role, grade, employment status employed as of date submitted by any of Oxford University’s departments, colleges or permanent private halls.
• Must be the entrant’s original and unpublished work. One entry per author.
• Past Prize recipients (winners and runners up) are not eligible to re-enter for three years. For instance, Prize recipients for 2025 will be eligible to submit again 2029.

About this Award                                                                     

The Oxford - BNU Creative Writing Award is offered by the Mo Yan Interdisciplinary Writing Centre, based at Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute and inaugurated in June 2019 to facilitate international and cross-cultural diversity within the global literary community. It is named for 2012 Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, who is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Oxford. We have been honoured to have Mo Yan serve as Chair of the Joint Judging Panels and delighted to have last year’s UK Panel judges – Lisa Appignanesi OBE FRSL (Chair of the Royal Society of Literature (2016-21), Chair of the Man Booker Prize 2018), Professor Christine Gerrard (Director of TORCH, University of Oxford, Chair Judge 2025), Matt Barber (actor and director) and Mike Tweddle (Artistic Director and CEO, Oxford Playhouse).

Competition and award management is the responsibility of the Mo Yan Interdisciplinary Writing Centre, Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute, to whom all communications should be addressed at pa_opgdc@regents.ox.ac.uk.

Timeline

• Submissions open on Wednesday, 30th October 2025
• Submission deadline is 12 noon on Friday, 31st January 2026
• Entries will be shortlisted by the Shortlisting Judge Panel on 13th March 2026
• Final Judging Meeting will take place on 1st May 2026
• Award Ceremony will be held in end of May (date tbc)

Submission requirements and conditions

• Submit your entry as both WORD and PDF attachments by email sent from your Oxford SSO email address to pa_opgdc@regents.ox.ac.uk no later than 12 noon on 31^st January 2026.
• The PDF version must be fully anonymised, named with the title and word count
• At the top of the WORD version state:

1. Your name as stated in your Oxford University matriculation/employment contract
2. Your name as you wish it to appear in any publicity, if different
3. Your email address for further correspondence
4. Your college, subject and year of study if a student
5. Your employing college/department and job title if staff
6. Your Bod card number

• The winning and selected shortlisted entries will be published by the nominated publisher in collaboration with Mo Yan Interdisciplinary Writing Centre and OPGDI. By submitting your entry, you agree to its publication and grant the necessary literary rights.