Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards 2026 now open for applications

Published Date: 25/02/2026

London Writers Centre and Wellcome Collection are delighted to announce the return of the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards.

The project aims to find and support writers from underrepresented groups, who have a big idea for a non-fiction book for general readers, that engages with the themes of health and being human.

Since launching the programme in 2022, ten awardees have been agented with three book deals including Rageshri Dhairyawan’s Unheard, Aimee Cliff’s How to Read Minds and Masud Husain’s Our Brains, Our Selves, winner of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2025.

Applications open from midday on Wednesday 25 February 2026 to 18+, UK-based unpublished and unagented writers who are disabled and/or global majority.

For details on how to apply, please visit the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards project page for more details.

A free online information session will be run on Monday 2 March, 7pm-8pm, for people considering applying for the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards. The session will be BSL interpreted. Register for the seminar here.

Applications will close at 5pm Wednesday 8 April 2026.

About the programme

Up to six awardees will be selected for a ten-month development programme to expand their non-fiction ideas to full-length book proposals. The programme will run from September 2026 to June 2027.

Judged by award-winning authors Kerry Hudson and Micha Frazer-Carroll, and literary agent Eli Keren, the programme will offer each writer a £2,000 bursary, specialist support from the publishing director and teams at Wellcome Collection, mentoring with an author, masterclasses on writing non-fiction, insight and industry days and the opportunity to meet with agents.

Wellcome Collection will have first refusal on the projects. In addition, there will be a public programme of masterclasses and panel events to offer a wider range of support to aspiring non-fiction writers.

In a time when we need art more than ever, this collaboration between London Writers Centre and Wellcome Collection enables our most talented emerging writers to evoke different perspectives and insights about our society. The programme is immersive, comprehensive and truly the best ladder you could give to any writer and I’mdeeply proud to be a part of supporting new writing from the margins and to support London Writers Centre once again.

Kerry Hudson, 2026 judge

I’m very excited to be judging this year’s Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards. We need more underrepresented voices shaping narratives on health, but too many currently face barriers to access in the publishing industry. I’m keen to read interventions that feel unexpected, either in their subject, their tone or their approach to storytelling.

Micha Frazer-Carroll, 2026 judge

I’m hugely excited to be working with the Wellcome Collection and London Writers Centre teams on this prize – expert-led non-fiction that helps us all to understand the lives we lead and the bodies we inhabit has never been more important and I’m looking forward to discovering some essential new voices and making sure they’re heard.

Eli Keren, 2026 judge

We’re excited to run this programme again this year, to support a new cohort of writers with a big idea on health and human being. Particularly following the successes of 2025 – with all six awardees securing offers of representation in the autumn, and Masud Husain’s brilliant win of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize with Our Brains, Our Selves. We can’t wait to be challenged, surprised and inspired by the entries that come in.

Fran Barrie, Publisher at Wellcome Collection

Back to all

Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards 2026 now open for applications

About the programme

Related Posts