We are now in the ninth year of our partnership with The Writers’ Prize, through which talented First Story students benefit from working one-to-one with an acclaimed writer from The Folio Academy. This year, we are delighted that four aspiring young writers and First Story alumni will be participating in the year-long programme.
Folio Academy Mentorships are an incredibly valued progression route for alumni of First Story’s Young Writers Programme. The scheme enables a select number of young writers to continue to pursue their creative writing ambitions with First Story, developing their craft and strengthen their voice with one-to-one support from an established writer.
We are always so excited to see the calibre of the mentors curated by The Folio Academy. Here are this year’s exciting pairings:
Liz Berry is an award-winning poet and author of the critically acclaimed collections Black Country (Chatto, 2014); The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018); and The Home Child (Chatto, 2023), a novel in verse. Liz’s work, described as “a sooty soaring hymn to her native West Midlands” (Guardian), celebrates the landscape, history and dialect of the region. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, The Folio Writers’ Prize and two Forward Prizes. Her poem ‘Homing’, a love poem for the language of the Black Country, is part of the GCSE English syllabus. Liz is a patron of Writing West Midlands and lives in Birmingham with her family. Liz will be mentoring Yusra from Skinners’ Academy.
Ashley Hickson-Lovence is the award-winning author of the novels The 392, Your Show and Wild East (overall winner of the East Anglian Book Awards 2024), as well as the poetry collection Why I Am Not a Bus Driver. His poem “Munster Road,” from that collection, was highly commended by the Forward Prize judges and featured in The Forward Book of Poetry 2026. He holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. His accolades include nominations for the Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature (2023) and the Carnegie Medal for Writing (2025). His forthcoming novel, About To Fall Apart, will be published by Faber in April 2026. Ashley will be mentoring Bruna from Trinity Academy.
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of four novels – The Water Cure, Blue Ticket, Cursed Bread, and the forthcoming Permanence. Her short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in Granta, the White Review, The New York Times and the Stinging Fly, and her work has been nominated for prizes including the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. In 2023 she was named as one of the Granta Best Of Young British Novelists. She lives and works in London. Sophie will be mentoring Beau from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s.
Yomi Ṣode is an award-winning Nigerian British writer. He is a recipient of the 2019 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship, shortlisted for The Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021, and Arts Foundation Awards 2024. His acclaimed one-man show COAT toured nationally to sold-out audiences, including at the Brighton Festival, Roundhouse Camden and the Battersea Arts Centre. In 2020, his libretto Remnants, written in collaboration with award-winning composer James B. Wilson and performed with Chineke! Orchestra premiered on BBC Radio 3. In 2021, his play, and breathe… starring BAFTA award-winning, David Jonsson, premiered at the Almeida Theatre to sold-out audiences, rave reviews and garnered four Black British Theatre Awards. He is the founder of BoxedIn, First Five, The Daddy Diaries, and mentorship programme, 12 in 12. Yomi’s debut collection, Manorism was shortlisted for the T.S Eliot Prize 2022, The Rathbones Folio Prize 2023, and was adapted for stage at the Southbank Centre. Yomi’s debut novel, The Interpreter, has been acquired and will be published by Viking. Yomi will be mentoring Iftinan from Co-op Academy Leeds.
Each pairing will work together over the course of the academic year to develop a project of the young writer’s choice. Corresponding regularly online and meeting in person, the mentors will provide personalised feedback and support. There will also be an opportunity for the mentees to perform their work publicly, with a celebratory event at the London Library in 2026.
Read more about last year’s Folio Prize Mentorships showcase.
It’s so motivational, so inspiring to have someone by your side who is a writer. I think even big writers, even people like Sam, need that support sometimes. The mentorship made me realise that you can’t backbone everything by yourself; having that fallback, having that support, that’s how you keep going.
SARAH, Folio mentee 2023/24
The Folio Academy is a group of more than 300 outstanding writers. Each year the Academy selects four of its members to become mentees to First Story alumni. Previous mentors include Fiona Benson, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Rachel Long, Will Harris, Adam Foulds, AL Kennedy, Alice Jolly, Evie Wyld, Francesca Beard, Joe Dunthorne, Kamila Shamsie, Louise Doughty, Lucy Caldwell, Nikesh Shukla, Ross Raisin, Sharlene Teo, Sam Byers, Frances Leviston, Momtaza Mehri, Diana Evans, Emily Berry, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Peter Hobbs, Samantha Harvey, Sunjeev Sahota, Caroline Bird, Will Burns, Guy Gunaratne and Joelle Taylor.
The Folio Academy Mentorships are supported this year by Amazon Literary Partnership.
