Winners and judges out of pocket as £20,000 writing awards appear to have closed

The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations

A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket.

Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the “finest poets and writers in the world”.

However, some of the judges for the 2025 competition say they were not paid, and a number of winners say they had their entries withdrawn after being accused of using AI to create their work – allegations they strenuously denied.

One judge, the 2021 Booker prize winner Damon Galgut, described the competition as a “scam” after he did not get paid for his work judging a fiction section of the annual competition.