Meet Our 2025
Shortlisted Writers
Together the shortlist forms a powerful collection of journeys, both real and imagined, exploring love, loss, courage and connection.
We are thrilled to unveil the shortlist for the inaugural Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Prize 2025.
Chosen from 682 entries spanning 66 countries, ten pieces stood out for their originality, craft and bold sense of adventure, whether internal or external or the compelling marriage of both. From solitary expeditions to dangerous crossings, to surreal excursions, from poignant encounters with the past to flights of self-discovery, the judges and entire team of readers were thrilled and impressed by the quality and variety of entries.
The ten shortlisted entries now go forward to the final stage of judging, with three prize-winning stories to be revealed on 5 June.
The Tom Grass Prize is a celebration of emerging talent and we are proud to honour these ten exceptional writers. Scroll down to discover more about their stories.
The Shortlist
The Water’s Edge at Delacroix
Alex Davies, UK
At Ease in Restraint
Larry Davis, USA
And Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years’ Time
Laura Hall, Denmark/UK
A Month in Jordan
Max Lunn, UK
Beyond the Edge of the Map
Matilda Mafuriranwa, Zimbabwe
Bucket
Jay McKenzie, UK/Australia
Encounters at the Edge of the World
Ghasem Najjari, Iran
The Water’s Edge at Delacroix
— Alex Davies
🇬🇧 UK
A man in post-war Louisiana reflects on his life’s experiences, his war trauma woven with memories of his father and the wider injustices of segregation. At the riverbank, he faces the ultimate crossroads of his own survival.
Laetitia Rutherford said, “‘This is a beautiful, melancholic piece that moved us deeply, with a strikingly original construction, and a piece that powerfully honours the experience of Black war veterans.”
“Tears etched my mother's eyes as she pulled her boy tight. My father stood back, fiddling with something in his pocket. Trucks laden with black faces rumbled out of the yard. 'You write me, son. Promise,' my mother instructed me. The reason why went unsaid. My father stepped forward and hugged me. He smelled of leather and sweat.”
At Ease in Restraint
— Larry Davies
🇺🇸 USA
A restless American drifter falls in with a band of Romani musicians journeying to the French bullfighting festival in Arles. Along the way, he befriends Renaldo, an Italian sunflower farmer on a pilgrimage to his ancestral land. Their shared journey through France sparks reflections on belonging, purpose, and the meaning of home.
Laetitia Rutherford said, “Full of adventure, music and the thrill of chance encounters, the atmosphere of this piece was sensuous and memorable.”
“My adolescent rebellion against the barbed wire fences of farm-town America led me to leave home early and create a credo that I dubbed the Drift. Boiled down, the Drift is simply an exercise in awareness, a practiced capacity to recognize opportunity. While opportunities aren’t rare, they are fleeting. If they aren’t seized in real time, they’re forever gone.”
And Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years’ Time
— Laura Hall
🇬🇧 🇩🇰 UK/ Denmark
After losing his kayak during a solo expedition along Greenland’s coast, a man is stranded alone on a desolate island. As days stretch on, what begins as a survival story subtly shifts into something stranger—an eerie meditation on solitude and the road not taken.
Luigi Bonomi said, “This is a wonderfully evocative piece of writing, dark and gothic and harrowing at times. I loved its imagery and the description of place and atmosphere but more than anything I hugely admired the tightness of the prose.”
“Small strips of his yellow kayak washed up on the rocks for days after the storm. The bright slivers shone out like banana skins, just as shocking, just as foreign, in the clear Greenland Sea. He picked them out and piled them up one by one beyond the high tide line like a miniature beacon in the grey landscape. But one day he came back and found them scattered by the wind, floating back in the water like miniature kayaks themselves, and that put paid to that idea. Now it was just him and the horizon."
A Month In Jordan
— Max Lunn
🇬🇧 UK
A fascinating true life account of the writer’s attempt to walk the length of Jordan in October 2024, it is a rumination on the fertile mental space that long distance walking engenders, and the extraordinary, often perplexing encounters it gives rise to. A thoughtful attempt to think about why we adventure, and what we bring back.
Neale Andersen said, “A month in Jordan is a moving meditation on the balance between the personal and the political, told in a series of vignettes that reference a rich tradition of writing on adventure. The author deftly conveys both the hardship and inspiration of his trek, and illustrates his journey to a clearer understanding.”
“I heard the first goats before I saw them, as the dull-sounding bell from the shepherd’s donkey sporadically ringing out. The sun was still low and in that precious first hour of walking, the flock looked so delicate, casting their long shadows down the terraced hill. Gone were last night’s worries about bombs.”
Beyond the Edge of the Map
— Matilda Mafuriranwa
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
Tapiwa, a young Zimbabwean, braves armed soldiers and treacherous rivers and borders to leave his homeland and find a safe haven. This is a visceral evocation of danger and an exploration of what it is to leave the past behind for an uncertain future.
Luigi Bonomi said, “The plight of a young man trying to cross the Limpopo river in Zimbabwe on his journey to freedom is brought to life in this moving story, rich with imagery and colour. A piece about freedom and refuge, about emigration and the departure from one’s family and all one knows, this is a story very much of our times and beautifully realised.”
“Tapiwa crouched low in the thick brush, his heart pounding in his chest like the drumbeat of a distant war. The stifling heat of the African sun focusing down on him, mingling with the thick scent of dust and sweat. He could barely see through the dense undergrowth, but he didn’t need to, he could hear the soldiers’ boots crunching against the cracked earth, their harsh voices carrying through the air, threatening to tear through his fragile cover.”
The Toaster
— Sara Mancinelli
🇳🇱 The Netherlands
Gala works in a restaurant, living out her days ‘like echoes in an empty room’, trying to forget her troubled childhood home. But one day her breakfast is ruined by the toaster catching fire, and by chance, she meets a colourful stranger, who leads her to reconnect with her lost family and take a second chance at a happy future.
Laetitia Rutherford said, “I love the raw voice of this story and the bold, plain style that overlays deep emotion. And then through a clever set of sliding doors, reminding me of magic realism via Murakami, a second chance at happiness opens up. A wonderful short story.”
““Then came the laugh. Loud. Lighthearted. Grating.
She glared. He noticed.
“Does my laughter annoy you?” he asked, grinning.
“Yes. It’s loud.”
“Or is it happy people who annoy you?”
His ease was infuriating. She was tense, frayed, broken by grief. And here he was—laughing.
But something in his question lodged itself inside her. A challenge. A mirror. Something she wasn’t ready to answer.”.”
Bucket
— Jay McKenzie
🇬🇧 🇦🇺 UK/Australia
In this powerful, inventive, and emotional story, a woman travels the great sites of the world, fulfilling her lost loved one’s bucket list.
Neale Anderson said, “An evocative and moving description of adventure later in life, the example it can set, and what it can mean to loved ones. Deftly told with reference to multiple cultures and experiences.”
“Bolivia next and the white-blind snow-glow of salt. Is this what death feels like? When you thought you were there, there was no white light, no soft-bearded Jesus coming to lead you off your mortal coil, just a blurred rainbow of static and grey fuzz, like lying amongst lint balls that were bits of sock and fluff of cat that gathered under the sofa when the kids were little. They say salt’s not good for the heart, you tell her, crumbling crystals between your thumb and middle fingertip, but you know that, of course, don’t you?”
Encounters at the Edge of the World
— Ghasem Najjari
🇳🇪 Iran
A restless traveller sets out with no fixed destination except for the quest of self-discovery. From desert trains to midnight bus terminals, fleeting friendships, and a moonlit dive at the world’s edge, each fragment of the journey reveals how travel strips us bare yet transforms the unknown into belonging.
Tanya Datta said, “This is a beautiful meditation on ‘travel as bewilderment’ in the tradition of psychogeography, which charts the writer’s fascinating odyssey through Iran with taut masterly writing.
“Travel is bewilderment. I learned this the moment I stuffed my backpack without a second thought, said hasty goodbyes, and stepped into the unknown. “Where are you going?” they asked, voices trailing after me like dust in the wind. I didn’t know what to say. So I went. Back then, I hadn’t grasped it, but later it hit me: being on the road carves the destination out of thin air. Destinations are tricksters – never where you first pin them on the map. The real ones creep up on you, slow and sly.”
Off Road with Mum
— Sally Turner
🇬🇧 UK
This touching and true account follows a woman and her elderly mother with dementia as they accidentally deviate from their safe routine. This small but significant departure from the everyday gently expands their boundaries and, despite their differences, reminds them of their loving bond.
Adele Grass said, “Every carer knows that each day brings its own challenging adventure. Stepping away from the daily routine to take a familiar but rarely travelled road to the pub may seem small — but for mother and daughter, it’s a brave and deeply spirited journey.”
"It’s strange how easy it seems for her now, to accept that someone else is in charge after 60 years of her tyrannical rule over her marriage and family. How sweet and caring she sometimes seems towards me now. I sometimes wonder if it’s a tactical move, now that she is totally dependent on the two of us, her children."
Where the Sky Ends
— Praise Ukpai
🇳🇬 Nigeria
A lyrical and powerful coming-of-age story tracing a young woman’s journey from a childhood leap of faith to a soul-searching trek across the Sahara. Rich in imagery and spirit, it celebrates defiance, courage and the search for self-discovery and belonging.
Tanya Datta said, “Beyond The Sky by Praise Ukpai is a fantastic piece of writing that is tightly written and full of insights about solitude, the desert and escaping expectations.”
“The first time I tried to fly, I was six years old. I climbed the tallest baobab tree in my grandmother’s compound, stretched out my arms, and leapt. For a moment I was weightless—free. Then the ground smacked me back to earth. My grandmother yanked me upright, muttering, “You want to be a bird, eh? Girls do not fly.” But I had seen the sky open. I had tasted the wind.”