Fresher

The Publishing House for New Voices

WELCOME TO FRESHER PUBLISHING

Fresher is a publishing press, established at Bournemouth University to nurture the publishing talent of the future and support writers everywhere. It is also central to the university’s MA in Creative Writing and Publishing.

The Bournemouth Writing Prize is an annual, international competition open to any writers of fiction and poetry. Judges each year include senior figures from the publishing industry, who offer a one-to-one or feedback on winners’ work as part of their prize. We also run the Writing Wizardry Prize for children of 11 years and under.

Please do keep in touch here, or via Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, for details of the Prize, our publications and other special writing-related events.

Please note, we do not currently accept any other work for publication. Unfortunately, as we are a very small publishing house, we are unable to offer any work experience placements.

Best wishes – Emma
Find out more

Fresher Writing Prize 2020 Shortlist (Short Story)

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We are delighted to be able to announce the shortlist for the 2020 Fresher Writing Prize short story category. We really were quite overwhelmed by the number of entries this year and would like to thank everyone who took the time to send us their work. There is so much talent out there, and it has genuinely been a difficult… View Post

Listen to Specially Commended poet Elenia Graf

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    In last year’s Fresher Writing Prize, Elenia Graf really impressed our poetry judge, Anthony Dunn with her piece, Excavation. Since being highly commended, Elenia was kind enough to join us for an interview and to read her poem in our recording studio.   Excavation maybe the time has come for excavation taking an axe down memory lane and… View Post

Listen to 2019 Poetry Winner, Isobel Shirlaw

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  Last year, Isobel Shirlaw won the poetry category in the Fresher Writing Competition for her touching poem, A Gift of Remembrance. Poetry judge, Anthony Dunn, praised her work and labelled it a “remarkable, multi-layered and coherent piece” which was both moving and intriguing.  Isobel has since joined us to record her winning poem and to share the inspiration behind… View Post

Getting Published: Q&A with Short Story Winner Hannah Persaud

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Since winning the Fresher Writing Prize Best Short Story award in 2016 for her story Cyfannedd Fach, Hannah Persaud has not put her pen down! Her love for writing has led her to complete her debut novel, The Codes of Love which will be published March 2020 in print by Muswell Press and in audio by Bolinda. In light of… View Post

Fresher Poetry Winner Reflection: Lindy Newns

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Since winning the Fresher Writing Prize for poetry in 2018, Lindy Newns has had one of her poems published in the Grenfell anthology, and was invited to read her work on a Manchester radio show. With another successful year of the Fresher Writing Prize behind us, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect back on Lindy’s winning poem and… View Post

Winner of the 2019 Fresher Writing Prize for the Best Short Story

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We are delighted to announce that Family Matters, by Martina Nesi, has been awarded the prize for the Best Short Story 2019. Fresher Publishing judge, Ansa Khan Khattak, Editor at Picador said: “I loved the ambition of this story – our narrator sees spirits –and how it worked so well with the very human aspect of family relations. The author made… View Post