The deadline is approaching for this year’s Observer Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism.

Our annual competition aims to discover the best new writing in arts journalism. We challenge entrants to write a review of a new work in the arts. The word limit is 800, and there is a prize fund of £4,000 plus the opportunity to be published in the Observer newspaper.

Last year’s winner Richard Pound wr0te about Olivier Schrauwen’s day-in-the-life graphic novel Sunday. The runners-up were Anuj Mishra, whose subject was Paval Kapadia’s drama film All We Imagine as Light, and Damien Le-Hoste, who wrote a review of the Black LGBTQIA-themed exhibition Making a Rukus!

Anthony Burgess is known for his novels, but the Prize celebrates another important aspect of his writing: his long association with the Observer newspaper. Burgess wrote for the paper for more than 30 years, and he won the Critic of the Year award in 1980. The Prize celebrates that legacy.

This year’s guest judge is Susannah Clapp, long-time theatre critic of the Observer.  She will be joined on the judging panel by Anna Leszkiewicz, the Arts Editor of the Observer, and Andrew Biswell, director of the Anthony Burgess Foundation.

You have until the end of 28 February 2026 to submit your entry. Full entry details, plus terms & conditions and some useful writing tips, can be found on our Observer Burgess prize pages.

Pictured above: The winner and runners-up of the 2025 Observer Burgess Prize (from left: Anuj Mishra, Richard Pound, Damien Le-Hoste)