Newhaven author among the winners – 2023 Creative Future Writers’ Awards

Creative Future Writer Vera Zakharov (contributed pic)

Writers from Newhaven, Worthing and Hove are among the winners in the 2023 Creative Future Writers’ Awards (CFWA) – the UK’s only national writing competition for all underrepresented writers.

Now in its tenth year, CFWA has a successful track record for discovering and nurturing talented new writers who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity, health or social circumstance and is “helping to reshape our literary landscape,” says judge Nina Mingya Powles. A prize fund of £20,000 worth of cash and top writing development prizes supplied by prominent publishers, authors and development agencies, is shared between winners to help develop their writing careers. Migration, otherness, identity, complex family relationships and lived experiences of disability and abuse are amongst the themes explored in the 12 winning entries across poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.

Vera Zakharov, a food campaigner who lives in East Sussex has won the Platinum Prize for Poetry for Mudlark of the Ouse, a raw and visceral poem exploring love, self-acceptance and the beauty to be found in the River Ouse, close to where she lives in Newhaven.

The poem is highly topical as Lewes Council has recently passed a groundbreaking motion to recognise the River Ouse’s rights to protection amid growing concern over the pollution of waterways. Vera lives in Newhaven.

Rayna Haralambieva has won Silver Prize for Fiction for her short story Three Kinds of Tears, which explores the strength of family bonds as a mother overcomes community prejudices to reconnect with her estranged son. Rayna speaks six languages, teaches Spanish and leads creative writing workshops. Rayna lives in Worthing.

Samreen Faria has won the Bronze Prize for Fiction for Sand Swimming, a short story set in Nairobi exploring language and freedom as a child tries to make sense of the colonial ideology she is growing up with. Samreen has a background in theatre and is currently working on a novel. Samreen lives in Hove.

The full winners are:

The 2023 Creative Future Writers’ Award winners are: Creative non-fiction: Platinum – Homecoming: Reflections on the Spring Revolution by Siam Hatzaw; Gold – The National Trust’s Bomb Disposal Squad by Bethany Handley; Silver – Finding the Words by C Castle; and Bronze – I liked the way the world looked at me when I was in the closet by Jay Mitra. Poetry: Platinum – Mudlark of the Ouse by Vera Zakharov; Gold – You Call It Your Secret Garden by Rachael Li Ming Chong; Silver – Cross Stitch House by Charlotte Murray; and Bronze – Johnny Peter by Renée Eshel. Fiction: Platinum – Mice by Charlie Rose Evans; Gold – Three Kinds of Tears by Rayna Haralambieva; Silver – Bread and Demons by Jay Jellicoe; and Bronze – Sand Swimming by Samreen Faria.

Judge of the 2023 Creative Future Writers’ Award, poet, writer and essayist, Nina Mingya Powles, said: “Judging the Creative Future Awards this year was an invigorating and challenging process.

"The shortlist of many innovative writers offered a glimpse of some of the most exciting writing being produced in the UK today. In the Poetry and Fiction categories, writers boldly pushed boundaries of genre and form.”