Our quartet of judges will be on the hunt for the most outstanding 500-word pieces to explore this year’s theme: Writing Home, a broad brief designed to usher in entries of all kinds that delve into the untold histories bound up in these most personal of spaces – whatever form ‘home’ might take. They will be seeking writing that compels, exhilarates and inspires them; pieces that capture the singular spell places can put us under.
Alongside a mentorship under WoI’s digital director, Elly Parsons, the winning applicant picked out by our jury will have the opportunity to see their work in an upcoming print issue.
An actor and playwright, Jeremy is best known for his 12-time Tony-nominated opus Slave Play, whose opening in 2018 was greeted by much critical acclaim, with a run currently underway at London’s Noël Coward Theatre. The artist’s career has since taken on a rather expansive quality, ranging from consulting on and later co-producing HBO’s Euphoria, philanthropic efforts to support libraries and new careers in theatre, through to co-writing the 2021 film Zola, which was put up for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.
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Shelley has worked as a senior editor at Pantheon, Knopf and Doubleday for over three decades with some of the most influential and celebrated critics and authors of her generation. Since working from 1975 as an assistant to editor Robert Silvers at the New York Review of Books, Shelley has steered key texts by Edward Said, John Gregory Dunne and Susanna Moore on to the bookshelves. A career highlight has been the publication of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, of whose incandescent works she was a longtime editor.
‘Don’t write what you think we want to read,’ warns Emily, our editor since 2022. ‘Write the stuff that means something to you: that makes you laugh or think or moves you.’ After 11 years as a senior design editor before WoI, and with stories in publications from the New York Times to Vanity Fair, she’s had time to hone the craft. ‘Enjoy the process of sitting down and magicking word after word out of thin air. Who knows where that first sentence will take you?’
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Our creative director at large, Hamish is internationally recognised as one of the most respected authorities on design and fashion. As well as being Vogue’s global editor at large, in which post he has presided over reams of exemplary storytelling and penned countless features over the years, he has also curated a number of critically acclaimed exhibitions, most lately India in Fashion for Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in 2023.
The competition has now closed for entries. Restrictions apply. No cash equivalent. There will be one winner from the UK and one from the US, and they will be notified within 28 days of the end date. Terms & Conditions apply.
