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4thWrite Prize 2022: Plenty Meat by Vanessa Ezeh

Bloody meat is still fresh, Aunty Patience was saying, and it will make the soup tasty, ehn? Desi nodded. Pastor John will enjoy his efo riro tomorrow, Aunty Patience continued. There will be plenty meat. Desi, back erect, hands folded in her lap, nodded again, and tried to… Read More

4thWrite Prize 2022: Half a Clementine by Rachel Imrie

The night before her first day at school, I laid out her uniform on the chair by her bed. I didn’t worry about waking her. Iona sleeps so deeply these days. She sleeps all the time. I went into her wardrobe and rifled through the yellowing bridesmaid dress… Read More

4thWrite Prize 2022: Kamal and the Bad Superimposition by Zui Kumar-Reddy

6:37 am and he is up on his toes; aching back, balding head, right hand casually combing testicular foliage, left hand posed introspectively on left hip bone, for balance—of posture and conversation—and he screams (!!!),              —Have you starched the sheets?             Wife of two years turns… Read More

4thWrite Prize 2022

Welcome to the Guardian and 4th Estate 4thWrite Prize, a competition open to Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers living in the UK or Ireland who are 18 and above. We want to read your story, whatever it may be. This is the fifth year of the prize. Over the… Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Inigo Laguda, Hopscotch

Inigo was born in Bedford, raised in Stevenage and currently resides in North London. He graduated in Writing and English literature from Anglia Ruskin University. His poem, Beautiful Tasting Words was a winner in the ‘Edith Sitwell’ Challenge on The Young Poet’s Network. His essays have been published in The Metro, Netflix: Bigger Picture, Wear Your Voice Magazine, Racebaitr and Black Youth Project. Follow him at @saveinigo on Twitter and Instagram.  HopscotchUnstuck in time, A Black boy raised in a homogeneously white commuter-town hurtles between libidinal incidents that have shaped him.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Laura Blake, Home is Not Here

Laura Blake – Home Is Not Here  Laura is a writer and editor based in Birmingham. She is mixed race, with two Jamaican grandfathers and two English grandmothers, which always makes for an interesting conversation about identity. She has an MA in Literary Studies from Aberystwyth University. In 2020, she was a finalist in the George Floyd short story competition and shortlisted for the Leicester Writes competition. Follow her at @LauraJBlake on Twitter. Home Is Not Here  When she was seven years old, Birdie Brown left Jamaica with her parents to begin a new life in England. Now, at the age of seventy, she faces being deported back to a country she barely remembers. Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Gift Nyoni, The Ritual Seat of the King

Gift was designed in Britain and assembled in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. During his first eight years in the UK he lived underground as an undocumented asylum-seeker, seeking refuge in libraries and trying to write, something he aspires to do well. He now lives out in the open in London, and is working on his first novel. He’s interested in identity, trauma, memory, and notions of home. The Ritual Seat of the King  The Rhodesian civil war ends and hope abounds in the new Zimbabwe, but when David’s father returns to the family home it soon becomes apparent that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and the young boy’s fascination soon turns into revulsion.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Amaan Hyder, Postpositions

Amaan is the author of the poetry collection At Hajj (Penned in the Margins, 2017). His poems have appeared in various publications including The Guardian, Poetry Review and Poetry London. He is a Ledbury Poetry Critic 2021 and a doctoral student at Royal Holloway, University of London. Follow him at @hyder_amaan on Twitter.PostpositionsPostpositions comprises thirty reflections by an unnamed narrator concerning inheritance, queerness and late nineties-early noughties television.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Sulaxana Hippisley, Cadaver

Sulaxana is an English teacher, writer and single mother. Runner up in the 2019 Bridport Short Story prize, she has been long listed for the 2020 BBC Short Story Award, the Bristol Short Story prize, the 2019 ‘Spread the Word’ Life Writing prize and  the Asian Writer short story competition. She was mentored by Courttia Newland for the 2017 Almasi League and is currently working on her first novel.    CadaverOn the eve of a dinner party, a young woman encounters the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil  war. Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Nicola Sheppey, Pontianak

Nicola works in architecture in London, having lived between Malaysia and the UK. Her creative non-fiction has been published in Epoch Press. She writes both short fiction and full-length novels, and recently graduated from Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel course. A Malaysian setting inspires her work, and she is drawn to magic realism and mythology in her writing. Follow her at @NicolaSheppey on Twitter and Instagram. Pontianak A young woman is placed in postpartum confinement and feels a malevolent presence threatening to invade.  Read More