Showcasing the work of under-represented writers

The Creative Future Writer’s Award competition is the UK’s only national writing competition for all under-represented writers who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, health, or social circumstance.

Previously, Creative Future has been taking postal and email entries in conjunction with online entries. This year Creative Future was looking to streamline their process to allow them to scale their awards and manage their workloads.

Creative Future grew the number of submissions they received and decreased their workloads by:

• Moving their application process to Zealous simplified the process of accepting entries from applicants. And although this year Creative Futures chose to allow for postal and email applications. The majority came through online submissions.
• Inviting judges to score entries remotely.
• Simplifying the applications process on Zealous also led to a markable decrease in queries from potential candidates about submitting.

Creative Futures record year didn’t impact their resources. Zealous empowered them to worry less about the admin and instead focus on serving more of their community than ever before. This increased the diversity and depth of the work submitted to them, allowing them to fulfill their mission in supporting the work of under-represented writers like never before.