Voices 2025 is a creative writing competition designed for care-experienced children and young people.
The competition was established five years ago by the charity Coram Voice and the theme of this year’s event is ‘my voice’. Care-experienced children and young people aged between four to 25 can enter.
Ahead of the closing date for this year’s applications, which is the 23rd March 2025, the judges for the competition have been announced.
They include:
- Baroness Lola Young – one of the first black women to become a member of the House of Lords in 2004
- Patrice Lawrence – a writer for children and young people. She has won a number of awards including the Bookseller YA Price, the Waterstones Price for Older Children’s Fiction, the Jhalak Prize for Children and Young People and the Little Rebels Children’s Award
- L Norry – a fiction and non-fiction author. She has also written two episodes of the well-known British soap EastEnders.
- Kirsty Capes – a care experienced author who currently works in marketing. She has recently obtained her PhD from Brunel University London of which her thesis investigated representations of the care experience in contemporary British fiction
- Chris Wild – author, keynote speaker and campaigner for young people in care. He has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV
- Jordan Morgan – director of programmes at Forward Thinking, a London-based conflict resolution NGO
- Callen Martin – the first care leaver in the history of East Sussex to study at postgraduate level. He gained her masters from Bath Spa University and studied Writing for Young People
- Deborah Maclaren – chief executive of LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids
Entries for this year’s competition can be written in any form, audio or video format including poems, shot stories, raps, songs and newspaper articles and must be max 500 words.
Commenting on the news Brigid Robinson, managing director of Coram Voice said: ‘We are delighted to announce our Voices 2025 judges who bring a wealth of creativity and experience to the competition, and will be incredibly inspiring for all our young writers taking part this year.
‘The Voices competition is the only dedicated competition for care-experienced young people, offering them the chance to write or create a piece on what matters to them most, to be heard, and to celebrate their voices. We urge children and young people to get their entries in before the deadline for the chance to have their work read by our judges and to meet them in person at our awards ceremony!’
Photo by Juliana Romão via UnSplash
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