The Mentoring Scheme 2026/27 is now open! Writing East Midlands’s ever-popular free writer craft and career development programme is accepting applications until the deadline of the 5th August 2026.
Opening a little earlier this year to accommodate for changes in programming, the scheme is open to writers aged 18+ who are living, working or studying in the East Midlands.
The scheme matches up to 10 emerging writers with experienced, professional writing mentors for a year of free, dedicated craft and career guidance while they work towards publication of a specific writing project.
Its main goal is to support writers in reaching the next stage of their career—whether that is traditional publication of a novel or poetry collection, a spoken word performance debut or premiering a film script—through one-to-one mentorship from an established writer, exclusive writing masterclasses and peer feedback.
Poetry collections, novels, short story collections, scripts and spoken word pieces are all accepted, though writers must have 80% of their first draft completed to apply.
This year, Writing East Midlands is pleased to be partnering with Out-Spoken Press once again to ensure that poets are fairly represented in our 2026-27 mentoring cohort.
In addition, as always, 3 of the 8 chosen mentees will be from a background currently underrepresented in the traditional publishing industry.
Find out more here
Deadline: Wednesday 5th August 2026 at 11.59 pm