#Merky Books are proud to announce Abaka Debrah as the winner of the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize 2025.
The winner was announced at a special award ceremony held at Waterstones Gower Street on Saturday 22nd March.
Now in its fifth year, the prize aims to discover unpublished, underrepresented writers aged 18-35 from the UK and Ireland. The winner is awarded a publishing contract with Stormzy’s publishing imprint #Merky Books at Penguin Random House UK.
Abaka Debrah, 25, is a spoken word artist and writer from Basildon, Essex.
His winning submission, Where Geezers Call Home, is set in an alternate world where race riots have left the UK divided and lawless. The United Nations step in to bail out the UK and the protagonist, Xavier, is relocated to Essex where strict “Unity Laws” are in place and rebellion is on the rise. Xavier must navigate life as one of the few Black members at his workplace, community, and even in his cul-de-sac. Amidst growing anti-UN sentiment, the cracks in racial harmony can no longer be ignored. Who can Xavier trust, and where will he turn?
Where Geezers Call Home is a thrilling and shocking dystopian exploration of the complexities of race and identity, trust, and rebellion in modern British culture.
Abaka Debrah said: “I’m still taking it all in. It doesn’t even feel real. Thank you to my close friends and family, to the judges, everyone at Merky Books and to all the talented writers on the shortlist! This is for all young Black boys who grew up wanting to be writers instead of footballers. Who love words and yearn for spaces to articulate themselves and I thank God that I now have the opportunity to do such. I am excited for the opportunity to develop this quirky story, to grow as a writer and share what’s been rattling about in my head.”
The panel of judges included British musician and #Merky Books founder Stormzy, author and chief theatre critic at the Guardian Arifa Akbar, Polari Prize winning author of Bellies Nicola Dinan, award-winning British-Nigerian writer Yomi Ṣode and Senior Policy Advisor and Zakiya Sultana, a senior bookseller at Waterstones Birmingham.
All shortlisted writers were invited to attend a writers’ camp in November of last year, where they get the chance to participate in writing workshops, panel talks, editorial one-to-ones and meet the #Merky Books team.
Previous winners of the prize include Hafsa Zayyan, author of We Are All Birds of Uganda (2021) and Monika Radojevic, author of Teeth in the Back of My Neck (2021), A Beautiful Lack of Consequence (2025) and Strangerland (2026), Jyoti Patel author of The Things That We Lost (2023) and William Rayfet Hunter whose debut novel Sunstruck will be published in May 2025. William Rayfet Hunter was named one of The Observer’s best debut novelists of 2025. The 2024 prize-winner Sufiyaan Salam’s debut novel Wimmy Road Boyz will be published in 2026.
Stormzy said “Where Geezers Call Home is super sharp, powerful and for me it was genuinely impossible to put down. Abaka’s more than just a writer – he’s an incredible storyteller through and through and what an honour it is for us to have the opportunity to publish his work.’
Nicola Dinan said: ‘I hope to find a better word than the totally cliche “urgent”, but I do imagine this book will be described as such later down the line.’
Zakiya Sultana said: ‘The writing was beautiful! Lyrical, poetic and flowed incredibly well. I found myself thinking about this long after I had read it!’
Joelle Owusu-Sekyere, Editorial Director at #Merky Books said: ‘Choosing a winner from such an incredibly strong shortlist was very tough but we are delighted to crown Abaka our winner of this year’s prize. #Merky Books is the perfect home for Where Geezers Call Home and we are all looking forward to working with him on his brilliant debut novel! Planning and delivering the prize every year is no mean feat and this year saw yet another exceptionally high calibre of submissions. It’s deeply humbling to see so many budding novelists sharing their stories with us through the prize and we hope this inspires and encourages them all to keep going with their writing and dreams of being published.’
