Announcing the 2026 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Shortlist
We are pleased to share the shortlists for the 2026 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, judged by Santanu Bhattacharya (Fiction), Jen Calleja (Life Writing), and Mona Kareem (Poetry), and chaired by Ellah Wakatama.
Celebrating the most promising new voices in fiction, life writing, and poetry from around the world, our international prize has no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background.
All winners and shortlisted writers will be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility), as well as a one-year subscription to Wasafiri.
Of the 2026 shortlists, Chair Ellah Wakatama said: ‘The reading for this year’s Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize was akin to undertaking multiple journeys to countries, communities, and homes across the globe. My fellow judges and I were true wasafiri – travellers – and the stories, essays, and poems chosen are, we hope, guides to new places and new ways of understanding.’
Wasafiri’s Editor and Publishing Director Sana Goyal said: ‘We’re thrilled to present the shortlists in fiction, life writing, poetry for the 2026 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. This year’s shortlistees show incredible promise, as they individually and collectively break stylistic and formal norms and bypass linguistic and metaphorical borders through their work. We’re excited for readers worldwide to embrace these stories, essays, and poems. Please join us in celebrating this year’s cohort.'
Announcing the 2026 shortlistees:
Fiction
Judged by Santanu Bhattacharya
'The fiction shortlist is rich and diverse in the themes it tackles, and in how the stories are told. Covering a sweeping range of emotions – from grief to yearning, desire to memory, indignation to rage – every story is a celebration of the human spirit, and a reflection on the power of human connection in today’s times.'
Iman ādam for ‘Yellowing’
Con Houghton for ‘The Canary’
Lavan Jeyarupalingam for ‘Beach Day’
Kathryn Sharpe for ‘So, what you sayin’?’
Shamima Yasmine for ‘Dispatches Investigates’
Life Writing
Judged by Jen Calleja
'The life writing shortlist contains all the pieces that stayed with me after reading them. Their creative attempts to push beyond simply relaying information in order to query memory, ask who gets to write about their life and experience, and connect with others – including the reader – across space and time, show flair, risk, deep reflection, and skilled storytelling.'
Khazna Y Chami for ‘Thinking Positively’
Kate Coffey for ‘There is a Hotel’
Tarun Gidwani for ‘Ocean of Milk’
Jacquie Palmer for ‘Lost Children’
Catherine Xinxin Yu (translating ‘無理之數’ by Yan Shu-xia) for ‘Irrational Numbers'
Poetry
Judged by Mona Kareem
'The poetry shortlist this year features bodies, utterances, affects, geographies, and languages. In each poem, the poet reanimates intimacies and animosities to explore the hollowness of empathy; the shrinking of space and memory; the defeats of everyday life; the broken chain of speech. This shortlist introduces us to talented poets who draw on the formal wealth of the genre to capture this fleeting moment, that visceral feeling, this vanishing world.'
Naro Alonzo for ‘Disconnection Notice’
Emmanuel Chukwu for ‘Oral Tradition’
Elia Isaac for ‘the ground underneath us holds so much it is terrifying’
Nicole W Lee for ‘宫 / Gong ghazitsu’
Alison Clara Tan for ‘Cauterise’
The winners of each category will be announced at the prizegiving ceremony on Saturday, 31 October at the Southbank Centre as part of London Literature Festival. The event is open to all and tickets are available here.
The shortlisted pieces will be published online in the coming months, with the winning pieces published in Wasafiri's spring 2027 issue.
The 2027 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize will open in February.
For further information, or to interview our shortlisted writers, contact Elizabeth Robertson at elizabeth.robertson@qmul.ac.uk.
