The Next Big Story 2025

The Next Big Story prize was launched on May 1, 2025, with the mission to find a new voice in fiction and kickstart the career of a writer who might otherwise never have dared to put pen to paper.

It worked! The Next Big Story became the world’s largest writing prize with over 22,500 entries. The team at The Novelry worked around the clock. Our bestselling author coaches read and reviewed every single entry, passing the high-scoring entries to our team of experienced editors, all of them former Big Five publishing professionals, to vet the entries and select a longlist and a shortlist. Next, we asked our panel of esteemed judges, guided by the public vote, to choose the winner from an outstanding shortlist.

Chaired by Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Tayari Jones, this year’s panel of judges pored through the shortlist to make the final selection.

Stella Donovan, the winner of The Next Big Story 2025, says: ‘When I saw the ad for the contest, I figured the odds of even making it through even an initial round of judging in such a huge competition were slim. The support, encouragement, and transparency embedded into this whole process has truly shown me that The Novelry is an organization run by writers for writers. Aside from the financial aspect of this recognition, I’m deeply honored to have been selected by such a prestigious panel of judges. I truly encourage anyone who has a story that won’t let them go to keep writing, take a big swing, and bet on yourself. As I’ve learned over the last few weeks, anything is possible.’

We’d like to thank everyone who entered for daring to start something we hope they’ll now be encouraged to continue. To those who entered The Next Big Story 2025, we salute you! To those who voted, thank you for reading. To our team and the panel of judges who read, read, and read again the entries, we thank you for making dreams come true.