Announcing the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize 2025
For the first time this year, we presented the Orwell Youth Prize alongside our adult prizes. We received 1476 entries to this year’s Youth Prize from students aged 11 to 18—a truly impressive selection of poetry, short stories, journalism, essays and game design from the next generation of political writers. We had to whittle down such an excellent number of entries to just 45 shortlistees!
The awards for our winners and runners-up were handed out by George Orwell’s son and the Founding Patron of our charity, Richard Blair who was joined by the judges of the 2025 Orwell Youth Prize—Manveen Rana, Gary Snapper and Anthony Anaxagourou.
You can read all the winners and runners up below. The winners will also feature in The Orwell Prize Anthology 2025, so do check back for further updates. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who entered, all our volunteers and judges, and congratulations to our winners.
WINNERS
Jiwoo Lee, Until the Ground Tilts (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Winter Docx, A Crimson Portrait (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Elena Lee, Skeleton Key (Years 10 to 11)
Chloe Soerjanto, Freedom is Absence (Years 10 to 11)
Eleni Barrett, Beyond the Threshold (Years 12 to 13)
Bea Unwin, snapshots of a pride and a protest (Years 12 to 13)
RUNNERS UP
Alexander Kariyawasam, Her Mother (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Mathew Bill, Weight of Wings (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Harry Elgott, Freedom is Resilience (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Arianne Charlemagne, Vivian (Years 10 to 11)
Anna Longa, The Freedom to Be Unhappy (Years 10 to 11)
Tanvisri Karri, Hope Unravelled (Years 10 to 11)
Jacob Filler, A Fathers Words, a Daughters Hope (Years 12 to 13)
Zayn Kubba, Erica’s Caller (Years 12 to 13)
Zuzia Wojciechowska, The Border’s Edge (Years 12 to 13)
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Years 7, 8 and 9: Merryn Reynolds Thurston, George Burlington, Victoria Rudz
Years 10 and 11: Lisa Masliukova, Vivienne Yii En Lim, Lewis Farman, Bea Glover
SHORTLISTED
Years 7, 8 and 9: Mathew Bill, George Burlington, Layyen Choaibi, Winter Docx, Harry Elgott, Luka Golubovic, Faye Henderson, Aanya Jain, Alexander Kariyawasam, Jiwoo Lee, Ysée Laval Cheilan, Hafsah Mirza, Merryn Reynolds Thurston, Victoria Rudz, Jenna Thaker, Daisy Wilkinson.
Years 10 and 11: Denisa Barincova, Rhea Bhatia, Lewis Farman, Bea Glover, Ruby Gatinot, Ziyana Kabir, Tanvisri Karri, Alys Watts, Lisa Masliukova, Anna Longa, Elena Lee, Vivienne Yii En Lim, Jeena Patara, Kieran Sharma, Chloe Soerjanto, Aafke de Vries, Arianne Charlemagne.
Years 12 and 13: Eleni Barrett, Maya Elton, Jacob Filler, Ali Ghias, Ellie Gladwin, Angelika Gwiazda, Emilia Jenkins, Benjamin McEwan, Zayn Kubba, Niamh Poppleton, Bea Unwin, Zuzia Wojciechowska.