OU Creative Writing academics back initiatives supporting would-be authors

Posted on 21 November 2025 • Arts, Arts and social sciences

The Open University’s Creative Writing team has teamed up with a leading writers’ agency to offer new and upcoming authors a competitive edge in the tough world of novel writing.

OU Creative Writing has joined forces with the Ruppin Agency and Writers & Artists to support writers with the re-launch – after 16 years – of a comprehensive guide to writing for aspiring authors: A Creative Writing Handbook: Developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice.

At a recent launch event they shared exclusive tasters from the Handbook which is also intended to  support writers looking to enter the Writers’ & Artists’ Working-Class Writers’ Prize.

“Opening up the publishing industry in important and meaningful ways”

The prize is sponsored for the first time in 2025 by The Open University and the Ruppin Agency. In the past, many winners and entrants of the prize have gone on to be published.

Author, co-director of the Ruppin Agency and the Handbook’s lead editor, Dr Emma Claire Sweeney, said of the OU’s sponsorship of the writer’s prize:

“The mission of the Open University is to open up educational opportunities to people who might not otherwise have access to higher education, so it feels like a natural fit to co-sponsor this initiative that is opening up the publishing industry in important and meaningful ways.”

She was speaking at the launch event for the handbook in November, hosted by Writers & Artists and entitled How to Write a Prize Winner. The event brought together the team behind the handbook’s revisions, the Ruppin Agency directors, and a series of award-winning authors.

Clare Povey, from the Writers’ & Artists’ Handbook team, compered the evening’s events and the audience heard exclusive tasters from the revised handbook.

Jonathan Ruppin from the Ruppin Agency said:

“The Handbook is an incredible resource for all writers and it’s great to see it updated to reflect the modern publishing world. I’m sure the support of The Open University for the W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize will attract the attention of many writers who would otherwise never have known about it.”

Deadline for entries to the W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize 2025 is 1st December, with longlist, shortlist and winner announcements scheduled to take place in early 2026.

The winner of the 2025 prize will receive the following:

• A fully-catered five-day Little Goat Barn writing retreat in North Wales hosted by the Ruppin Agency, with return travel included
• Mentoring sessions with judge Ashley Hickson-Lovence and OU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Emily Bullock
• One-to-one with Jonathan Ruppin, director of the Ruppin Agency Writers’ Studio and former literary agent
• A year-long membership to The Society of Authors
• A £200 cash prize
• A place at a Writers & Artists writing and publishing event
• A bundle of creative writing books, including the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook

Two runners-up will also receive mentoring support from Emily Bullock and a one-to-one with Jonathan Ruppin. All shortlisted writers will be gifted a year-long membership to The Society of Authors.