2025 Winner
Our winner and two runners-up each take us on a strikingly original journey—across oceans, continents, and inner landscapes.
These stories stood out for their powerful sense of place, emotional depth and precise, confident craft.
“It didn’t occur to any of us when we set up the Tom Grass Prize in memory of our erudite, adventuring, rugged and sensitive friend Tom that we would enter into a conversation with so many old friends and new connections around the world. We have been staggered and delighted to see 682 emerging writers take up our call for pieces responding to the spirit of adventure. It’s a broad idea which captures Tom’s spirit and has resonated widely, because adventure drives and inspires our lives, whether local or exotic, whether physically testing or a matter of hard-to-express emotion. People wrote to us from 66 countries and all the world’s populated continents, giving us the feeling of a global village, excited by a common love of good writing and the many crossroads we can explore through the written word. We were torn over the final decisions, we debated it long and learned so much. Thank you to every bit of support to the 2 chosen charities and thank you to everyone for taking part.”
Laetitia Rutherford, Chair of Judges
2025 Winner
WINNER 2025
Praise Ukpai
— Where the Sky Ends
🇳🇬 Nigeria
Praise Ukpai is a bold and evocative writer whose work explores feminism, identity, and African cultural narratives with clarity and heart. She writes to enlighten, challenge, and inspire, blending personal stories with sharp social commentary. By crafting thought-provoking essays and powerful scripts, Praise brings a fresh, authentic voice to every piece. Her writing is both a mirror and a megaphone—reflecting lived experiences while amplifying the voices of women and underrepresented communities.
2025 Runners-Up
RUNNER-UP 2025
Jay McKenzie
— Bucket
🇬🇧 🇦🇺 UK/Australia
Jay McKenzie is a writer and performing arts teacher from Newcastle with a penchant for sun, knitwear and tea. She has lived in Greece, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea and calls Australia home. She recently won the Fish Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her forthcoming novel, How to Lose the Lottery will be published in Spring 2026.
RUNNER-UP 2025
Laura Hall
— And Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years’ Time
🇩🇰 🇬🇧 Denmark/UK
Laura Hall is an English writer and journalist based in Copenhagen. She writes stories about adventurers and mavericks, landscape, culture and nature as she explores our connection with nature. She was first bewitched by the wildness of Greenland on a visit in 2022 and returns regularly, dreams of it often and feels compelled to write about it. She is a first year mature student on the Manchester Met MFA course.