Entries now open for the 2025 NTU Arts Creative Competition

Published: 23/01/2025

Every year students are invited to submit a piece of creative writing based on a theme and this year, for the first time, you can also enter music or art.

Inspired by Aniefiok Ekpoudom's book, Where We Come From: Rap, Home and Hope in Modern Britain, you’re invited to write, draw, paint, design, photograph, compose or record a piece of original work related to the book’s title. Why not explore your favourite genre of music, ideas around home, what brings you hope, or your views of modern Britain?

Prizes and opportunities

Winners will be published in our 2025 anthology, Where We Come From, and have the opportunity to read, perform or exhibit their work at the end-of-year NTU Arts Showcase on Wednesday 21 May at Metronome.

Prizes include books, art materials, tickets and shopping vouchers – plus an NTU Creative or Professional Short Course worth up to £695 for the overall winner!

To get you started, Aniefiok is running bespoke Writing Masterclasses exploring the competition themes on Wednesday 5 February. Find out more and book.

How to enter

To enter, simply upload your work via this form.

Written entries should be a maximum of 500 words, or 40 lines of poetry. Other creative work should be submitted digitally as either an image or piece of music of up to three minutes in length.

You can submit a maximum of two entries per person in different genres. For example, you could submit an illustration and a poem, a photo and an illustration, or a story and a song.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 23 March at midnight.

If you have any questions, please email ntuarts@ntu.ac.uk.

Good luck!