2027 Disabled Writers Commissions
Please read these eligibility criteria and Terms and Conditions before submitting your application.
You can listen to an audio version of this information, and download it as a Word document. To request information in alternative formats, please contact us.
Commission Eligibility Criteria
- The 2027 Disabled Writers Commissions are open to London-based D/deaf and/or disabled writers aged 18+.
- By D/deaf and/ or disabled writers we mean writers who have faced disablist and/or audist barriers in accessing their careers, and writers who consider themselves to be deaf or disabled. This includes: Deaf, deaf and hard-of-hearing people, blind and visually impaired people, people with mobility and energy-limiting impairments, chronic illnesses, mental health conditions or experience of mental distress, and/ or learning disabilities, neurodivergent people. We also include other people who have experienced barriers accessing the writing world related to their experience as people living with chronic or long-term health conditions or impairments not otherwise discussed.
- We particularly welcome entries from deaf and disabled writers from the following communities:
- Black, Asian, Global Majority
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQIA+)
- Working class or from a working-class upbringing
- Care experienced
- Deaf BSL speakers
- Entrants can be writers at any stage of their careers writing in poetry, fiction, narrative non-fiction or writing for performance.
Commission Terms and Conditions
- Entries submitted should be original work and must be in English or British Sign Language.
- You should not use generative AI in producing any part of your submission.
- Entrants can apply to the commission online or by post.
- Postal entries must be submitted as text.
- For online entries, answers to the application questions (e.g. writing bio) and your sample of your work may be provided as text [.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf] or audio [.aac, .aiff, .flac, .mp3, .m4a, .wav] format in English, or video [.mp4, .mov, .wmv] format in English or British Sign Language.
- Unfortunately, we cannot return entries submitted by post but we will acknowledge receipt of entry via email.
- Due to the volume of entries expected, London Writers Centre is unable to provide feedback for any entries. We hope you understand and are sorry to not be able to provide this.
- Entries can be submitted from 9am, Friday 17 July 2026. The closing date for entries is 10am, Monday 14 September 2026.
- The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence about their decisions will be entered into. London Writers Centre reserves the right to change the panel of judges without notice.
- Selected writers will contracted by London Writers Centre to undertake a writing commission as per the commission brief.
- The commissions have an open brief and there is no theme which the work has to respond to. Commissions don’t need to reference disability, but can if you’d wish them to, and can cover any topic.
- If you are applying to develop existing work, this work cannot have previously been published or produced.
- The commission development period will run from October 2026 to February 2027. The commissioned work will be launched both in print and live at Deptford Literature Festival on Saturday 20 March 2027, and made available online.
- An access fund is in place to make reasonable adjustments and a small activation budget is available to enable work to be presented to audiences via filmed performance, print and audio media where possible.
- Copyright of all commissioned work will remain with the author.
- London Writers Centre will reserve the right to publish the commissioned works on their website and/ or in print.
- Commissioned writers will each receive:
- £1,000 commission fee
- Three sessions with a mentor
- One to one development and production support from London Writers Centre
- Publication of their work in a pamphlet/zine, distributed at Deptford Literature Festival
- A platform to showcase their work to an audience at Deptford Literature Festival
- Commissioned writers will be expected to:
- Produce a piece of previously unpublished and unproduced work
- Meet project deadlines, including a deadline for print publication
- Showcase the commissioned work at an event as part of Deptford Literature Festival on Saturday 20 March 2027
- Take part in a panel discussion as part of the festival about your work, creative practice and the process of being commissioned
- Support the promotion of the completed commissions
- There may be extenuating circumstances that render the dates and timelines in this document flexible. London Writers Centre reserve the right to alter these dates should it be necessary for any reason.
- London Writers Centre reserves the right not to award any of the stated commissions if there are insufficient submissions and/ or if entries are not taken forward by the judges.
- Submission of an application to this commission will be taken to mean acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. Entries that fail to comply with these rules may be disqualified.
If you have a question about the commissions which is not answered here or on the commission webpage, please email: hello@londonwriterscentre.org.uk