JCDC Reports Surge in Entries and Winners for 2025 Creative Writing Competition

The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) recorded a significant increase in both entries and award recipients for the 2025 Creative Writing Competition, underscoring the nation’s growing enthusiasm for literary expression and cultural storytelling.

Visual Arts Development Specialist at the JCDC and Coordinator for the 2025 Creative Writing Awards Ceremony, Dr. Winston Campbell, told JIS News that interest in the competition for the year surged.

“The total number of entries received was just above 1,250. We had 922 entries that were reviewed… but we had some entries… around 340… that were disqualified for different reasons” he said.
Dr. Campbell noted that the number of winning entries experienced the most dramatic increase.

“For the 2025 competition, we had 295 winning entries. This is significant because, for 2024, we only had 101 winning entries. Comparatively speaking… we’ve seen a significant increase, more than double,” he said.

“We also had more than a doubling in the number of award winners… 123 for 2025 compared to around 50 for 2024,” Dr. Campbell added.

The awards ceremony took place on February 19.

Dr. Campbell said the competition continues to embrace and celebrate the wide spectrum of Jamaican literary expression.

“The competition focuses, as the name suggests, on different ways of the written format of expression that our people are so good at,” he stated.

Dr. Campbell added that the event attracts submissions across multiple genres, including novels, scripts for plays and television productions, short stories, poems, and similar forms of writing, emphasising “we accept entries in all written formats of cultural expression.”

Entrants are required to specify their intended readership through a three category system.

“We have juniors, which would be our children… we have our intermediates, which would be our teens… and we have our adult readership group,” Dr. Campbell outlined

Judges evaluate each submission according to its designated category, and to ensure fairness, the identities of the writers remain confidential throughout the adjudication process.

As part of the JCDC’s broader mandate, the Creative Writing Competition forms an integral component of the organisation’s distinctive arts portfolio.

“We have the entertainment arts, which generally culminate around Independence… the other pillar is the unique arts. So the creative writing competition really falls in the unique arts segment of what we do,” Dr. Campbell noted.

He further indicated that the unique arts portfolio encompasses visual arts, short films, and the culinary arts competition.

The JCDC Creative Writing Competition remains one of Jamaica’s premier platforms for both emerging and established writers to showcase their talents, celebrate the nation’s culture, and contribute to its rich literary heritage.