2025 Speculative Fiction Competition
winners announcement!
The winners!
The 2025 competition received a great number of submissions from around the world and our judge, Philippa Thompson,
was thrilled to have an opportunity to consider each of them. Thank you to everybody who entered; we hope
your stories and writing continue to thrive. The standard was incredibly high, so deciding on
our winners was no easy feat. A tough decision had to be made, nevertheless.
And so, with great aplomb, the 2025 winning manuscripts and writers are…
1st place: The Eyes Among Us by Alex Forbes (full novel feedback worth over £1000)
2nd place: Far Sky 11 by David Taylor (feedback on 5000 words, plus 50% off BBL services in 2025)
3rd place: Morenike and the Magic Slippers by Mayowa Pamela Odunaiya (feedback on 5000 words, plus 50% off BBL services in 2025)
See the shortlist…
Find out about each of the shortlisted writers and manuscripts here.
winning writers and manuscripts
1st place Winner…
Alex Forbes
Alex Forbes is a novelist and screenwriter from Thatcham, UK. He has written and directed award-winning short films, with multiple broadcast credits including Channel 4's Random Acts and Gogglebox. He currently has a feature screenplay in development with Circus Studios.
He enjoys extreme sports, lying about his hobbies and writing about himself in the third person.
The Eyes Among Us
Two spies for the dark lord must pose as newlyweds to infiltrate the court of the king who wronged them and exact their revenge.
A fantasy spy thriller.
What Alex had to say about winning:
“I’m very grateful for the Black Blade team for considering my novel. I haven’t received any feedback on this so far, so this is hugely encouraging and I’m very excited to hear how it can be improved! “
Runners-up…
Far Sky 11
Told in first-person, the story concerns the first Martian colonists who, after uncovering a possibly fake alien artefact, begin to psychologically unravel, igniting a powder keg of paranoia, mania and high strangeness within the confines of the base.
David Taylor
When not writing, David works as a games developer for a small indie company in Edinburgh. He is also an actor and occasional musician. David has had a few short stories published, most recently in Gutter Magazine, but this is his first novel.
Mayowa Pamela Odunaiya
An Alumnus of HarperCollins (UK) Author Academy-writing for children in 2021, Mayowa is a black disabled female British artist who has published poems as a result of winning competitions. At www.dreamquestone.com in 2009, Mayowa won second prize, belongs to several critique groups and is a member of SCBWI.
Morenike and the Magic Slippers
Morenike, a resilient 11-year-old Lagosian, wants to be a Nollywood actress. But when she comes across a pair of alluring slippers, they give her life-threatening nightmares! If Morenike can distance herself from trophy friends, she can save her life, discover true friendship, and fulfil her dreams of being cast as Queen Moremi Ajasoro.
Competition Judge
Philippa Thompson is an Editorial and Events Intern at Black Blade Literary. In 2024, she graduated from the University of Glasgow with an undergraduate degree in English Literature and is currently studying a postgraduate degree in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier. Philippa really enjoys reading anything that contains dragons and books which take inspiration from classical mythology. Her favourite book series is The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
As this year’s competition judge, Philippa wants to read page-turning stories with utterly memorable characters, unique concepts and worlds that feel lived in.
