Is this the final chapter for £20,000 awards?

A competition for new writers promising a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving -winners and judges, including a Booker prizewinning novelist, out of pocket.

- Shane Hickey

Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the "finest poets and writers in the world".

However, some of the judges for the 2025 competition say they were not paid, and a number of winners say they were accused of using AI allegations strenuously denied.

One judge, 2021 Booker prize winner Damon Galgut, described the competition as a "scam" after he did not get paid for judging a fiction section.

Anthony Joseph, who won the 2022 T.S. Eliot prize for poetry, also says he was not paid for his work.

The annual prizes were founded by Simon Kerr, a writer who previously worked for the University of Hull and ran another writing award which prompted a complaint over late payment.