New Writer 2026: Alice Rowena Wilson

Alice Rowena Wilson is a writer and tutor, originally from Herefordshire and now living in Edinburgh. She is particularly interested in the intersection of the historical, the fantastical, and the imaginary.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in X-R-A-Y, Death Kit, The Rialto, Dishsoap Quarterly and more, and she has been nominated for Best Microfiction 2026. She has been a BBC / Arts Council England New Creative, with a short drama broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2021. She has also written race reports on women’s professional road cycling for VoxWomen.

Writing sample

His team. Jules did not want to look at them. It was his Tour, this year. It had to be. It was his fourth one. He was twenty-seven years old. His race to lose. Each of these men had been told to spend the next three weeks dedicating himself to the task of Jules winning the Tour. There was no higher purpose to their existence beyond his victory. They were his chess-pieces, ready to deploy at his command, his protectors, his bottle-fetchers, his men to set the pace up the hills and bring him back on the flat, men who, for these three weeks, must obliterate all other desires, all selfishness, all narcissism, all idle dreams of their own glory, and who must destroy their own bodies, must work their legs until their knees grind and their backs are nothing but luminous strings of pain, until their teeth ache from clenching and their palms are more blister than skin. And as Jules sat in front of them, chewing diligently, forcing the wet lumps of food down a throat that did not want to receive them, into a body that thrummed with nervous energy, the tension rising, as it always did, as if his whole body were a sinking ship, the water closing in on his throat, filling his limbs with bilious pressure, he looked at the men who were to serve him, his teammates, and suddenly he loved them, loved that they would do as he asked, that they would bend their necks and ride for him, and hated that they would at some point relinquish their duty, dropping away, inadequate, none of their bodies able to match his own, exposing him on the mountainside, and leave him with nothing but his own straining body and the bike. 

Alice says:

'I'm absolutely thrilled to receive this award. I was totally shocked when I got the call – I’d just woken up from a nap and thought it was a bizarre dream! I'm now looking forward to throwing myself into my writing this year, and making the most of this opportunity.'