Room to Write is a new literary award developed by Hay Festival, in partnership with Airbnb, designed to support UK-based writers at a critical stage in the creation of new books.

The award recognises that time, space, and a change of environment are essential to fuel creativity and are often inaccessible to writers due to financial or personal constraints.

The 8 selected writers will be awarded an Airbnb coupon worth £1,500, enabling them to stay in a UK location of their choosing that best supports focused, uninterrupted writing. Whether that’s a quiet rural retreat, a coastal escape, or a city with literary resonance, the chosen space becomes the writer’s “room” – both literal and imaginative.

Rooted in Hay Festival’s commitment to nurturing contemporary writing and Airbnb’s mission to enable meaningful travel and connection, Room to Write champions creativity, and the importance of place in storytelling.

Room to Write seeks to enable UK-based writers to make significant progress on a new book (at any stage beyond initial idea) by removing barriers related to time, place and cost and welcomes applications from:

Elgibility 

• UK-based published* writers of fiction or non-fiction or poetry aged 18+
• Published Writers in the early stages of their careers who are seeking time, space, and support to begin building a sustainable professional pathway
• Published Mid-career writers who may be encountering creative, financial, or structural challenges with their next publication and would benefit from focused support to progress their work
• Established and published writers who feel they have reached a natural limit within a particular genre, form, or language, and who face barriers in achieving a meaningful step change in their practice
• Applications will be assessed on the strength of the proposed work and the impact that dedicated time and a change of environment could have on the writer’s work, rather than on career stage alone.

*Applicants should have published at least 1 book - either through a publisher or an independently-published title. Poetry titles can include pamphlet or chapbook.

How to Apply

Please fill out the digital application form.

The application will ask for the following:

• Please provide a description of your work and explain how a change of place or space will support its development (Max: 500 words)
• A short writing sample (Max: 500 words)
• Brief writer biography (Max: 200 words).

Assessment Criteria

The judging panel will be made up of established, award-winning voices from across the literary and cultural landscape, alongside senior representatives from Hay Festival and Airbnb

Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Clarity and ambition of the proposed piece of work and thoughtful engagement with the concept of place/space support
• Quality and originality of the writing
• The need described by the entrant
• Only applications via the digital application form will be accepted. Late applications and postal applications will not be considered.

Deadline for submissions is Sunday 31 May at 12pm.

A Statement on AI

This opportunity is for creative writers, so we would kindly ask that you use your own personal expression and writing skills to respond to the questions and not AI. All applications will be personally assessed by the assessment panel.

Award Offer

The 8 selected winners will each receive:

• A £1,500 Airbnb coupon that can be spent on listings in the UK
• An editorial feature on Hay Festival digital platforms