We are delighted to present the 2025 Young Writers Competition Anthologies, featuring 180 poems and stories based on this year’s theme The Legend and selected from entries by over 70 schools across South London and Surrey.
Our overall winner was Ana Gumende for her insightful, original and cleverly written poem, Soldier Proletariat.
To see our full list of winners and runners up, click here.
The Young Writers Competition – and our whole Schools’ Programme – is made possible thanks to the support of our Principal Educator Sponsor, the University of Roehampton.
Overall Winner: Ana Gumende, Soldier Proletariat
Winners
Damien Uzdin, A Wise Warrior
Marlow Thomlinson, The Legend of Shé Lóng
Orlaith Jackson, The Painting Pony Named Poppy
Kasper Leung, The Slaying of Minlochrysa and the Legendary Athencles
Anika Jhunjhunwala, A Tale Through Time
Alabama Wilkinson, The Legend of the Capybara
TJ Hughes, My Superheroes
Beatrice Hudson, Starry Night, After Van Gogh
Safaa Bassawan, Not When It Counts
Celeste Sofia Adami, A Witch’s Tale
Milly Davies, Death in My Mother’s Garden
Juliet Capgras, i am medusa
Riylee Shearwood, Legend of Sarah Red Ruby
Ada Onur, The Man with a Perfect Legacy
James Son, I, Asterion
Calum Mason, Filming My Journey
Lente Ottink, Fogged Up Glass
Max Latif, Boy Meets Blind Prophet
Runners-Up
Luca Franklin Casey, Lightening Luca
Emilia Griffiths, The Best
Alexander Mattmann, The Legends I Know
Aveer Gulati, The Greatest Legend
Joshua Lam, Mighty Momataro
Rory Seddon, The Legend of the Beast
Jemima Rose, The Legend of Tymia’s Tree
Annaliese St Louis, A Girl’s Journey To AFC Wimbledon
Brooke Hopkinson, The Legend
Affan Naseer, Prologue: Ashes Beneath the Sun
Noa Spencer-Brown, The Lady of the Water
Tilak Patel, Erasure Protocol
Aanya Singh, Kaikeyi
Ben Bedford, The Magical Horse