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New Writers Awards Showcase 2025

Find out more about our exciting 2025 New Writers Showcase, taking place on 27 February.

Every year, the New Writers Awards spotlights an amazing array of new writing talent in Scotland. Now is your chance to hear the 2024 awardees read from their own work at our exciting showcase event. Join our fabulous host Shane Strachan(this link will open in a new window) to enjoy readings from our talented writers, then take their words home with our New Writing sampler!

We'll also live stream the event for you to watch at home – we will update this page with the link and share it on our social channels.

Book your showcase ticket

Date: Thursday 27 February 2025

Date: 7–11pm

Location: Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED

Price: £2

(this link will open in a new window)Book your ticket

Accessibility info and journey planning: Masks are welcome and socially-distant seating will be available near the back of the room.

Lift access is available and accessible seats can be reserved – please select whether you need accessible seating when you purchase your ticket so we can facilitate your seating reservation with the front of house team. The Traverse Theatre have listed their available facilities and access information on their website(this link will open in a new window), as well as directions for travel(this link will open in a new window).

You will be able to buy books from previous and current Awardees on the night, thanks to help from the incredible Lighthouse Books(this link will open in a new window) and Gaelic Books Council.(this link will open in a new window)

Spotlighting our New Writers

The prestigious judging panel had the difficult task of selecting our talented awardees from hundreds of entries. Our panellists this year included respected writers Okechukwu Nzelu, Kathleen Jamie and Zaffar Kunial on Poetry, Shane Strachan and Liz Niven on Scots, as well as Vivian French and Maisie Chan on Children’s and YA and Leyla Josephine and Hannah Lavery on Spoken Word. The Gaelic New Writers Awardee is selected by The Gaelic Books Council.

Meet our awardees

Discover more about each of our New Writers, including short samples of their writing, below.

Les Hodge's headshot'
Les Hodge
Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction
Sarah Whiteside's headshot'
Sarah Whiteside
Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction
Ross Crawford's headshot'
Ross Crawford
Scots
Katherine Hudson's headshot'
Katherine Hudson
Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction
Siun Carden's headshot'
Siun Carden
Poetry
Pip Osmond-Williams's headshot'
Pip Osmond-Williams
Poetry
John Lawrie's headshot'
John Lawrie
Spoken Word
Amos O'Connor's headshot'
Amos O'Connor
Children's and YA
Taslin Pollock's headshot'
Taslin Pollock
Children's and YA
Kristina Nicolson's headshot'
Kristina Nicolson
Gaelic: Children's and YA
Iain Cumming's headshot'
Iain Cumming
Gaelic: Fiction and Narrative Non Fiction

The New Writers Awards are supported by Creative Scotland, the Russell Trust, the Dr David Summers Trust, Garrick Charitable Trust, Badenoch Trust and the William Grant Foundation.

Header photo credit: Kat Gollock