THE MENTORING SCHEME 2025 IS OPEN FOR ENTRIES

The Mentoring Scheme 2025 is now open!

Writing East Midlands’ ever-popular, FREE writer craft and career development programme is now accepting applications from writers aged 18+ who are living, working or studying in the East Midlands.

The scheme matches 8 emerging writers with experienced, professional writing mentors for a year of free, dedicated craft and career guidance while they work towards publication of a specific writing project. Its main goal is to support writers in reaching the next stage of their career—whether that is traditional publication of a novel, a spoken word performance debut or premiering a film script—through one-to-one mentorship from an established writer, exclusive writing masterclasses and peer feedback.

Over one year, the 8 chosen mentees will be awarded: 5 mentoring sessions with a professional writer, matched based on their needs; 3 peer network meetings with their mentoring cohort; 3 masterclasses, tailored to the interests of the group; free attendance to The Writers’ Conference 2027; and a free Society of Authors advisory session. All. For. FREE.

Poetry collections, novels, short story collections, scripts and spoken word pieces are all accepted, though writers must have 80% of their first draft completed to apply—find out what this means on the Writing East Midlands website.

This year, Writing East Midlands is partnering with Out-Spoken Press to ensure that poets are fairly represented in our 2025-26 mentoring cohort. What this means: 2 of our 8 mentees will be poets or spoken word artists, and their mentor for the duration of the scheme is pre-confirmed to be award-winning poet Anthony Anaxagorou.

In addition, every year, 3 of the 8 chosen mentees will be from a background currently underrepresented in the traditional publishing industry.

The Mentoring Scheme is an unmissable opportunity for ambitious and driven writers who want to seriously commit to their writing, take their career to the next level, chase their goals and achieve them over the course of one year.

If this sounds like you, or a writer you may know, make sure you have uploaded your application to the Writing East Midlands submissions portal by the deadline: Tuesday 9^th October 2025 at 11.59 pm.

To apply, you need to submit a written extract: 1,500 words for prose (novels/short stories), 15 pages for scripts, 15 minutes of spoken word or 6 poems at max. 60 lines each. Alongside your extract, you’ll also need a one-page (A4) synopsis and the answers to five questions from us, which you can find on the webpage here. Please ensure you’ve read the full eligibility guidelines before applying.

To apply, click the link here:

https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/for-writers/mentoring-2/

Or here:

https://bit.ly/WEMMENTOR