Prescot Festival Short Story Competition 2012

Do you love words? Are you imaginative? Do you have an urge to put pen to paper?

Entry to the 2012 Prescot Festival Short Story Competition is open to non-professional writers of all ages living in Merseyside. To start you off, we’re giving you a choice of two words, or themes, to inspire your story: CELEBRATION or REUNION.

Pick a theme and start writing! The winner will receive a £100 prize. Keep reading for the full rules.

1. Entrants must live in Merseyside and must not have had a piece of fictional writing professionally published, ie, in return for payment. There are no age restrictions. Entries are limited to one per person.

2. The story you submit must be based on or inspired in some way by one of the following words, or themes: CELEBRATION or REUNION. It is your choice how to interpret the word. The story must be your own original work of fiction, unpublished, in English, and with no more than 1,000 words. There is no minimum word count.

3. Print or type your story on A4 paper in size 10 or 12 font. Include a page number and the title of the story in the header or footer of each page, but do not include your name or any identifying details on any of the pages. Include a separate title page containing the following information: Full name, address, telephone number, email address, title of story.

4. The closing date for the competition is 31 May, 2012. All entries must be received by then. Send your entry to: Prescot Festival Short Story Competition, c/o Dyane Basinger, 5 Preston Avenue, Prescot, L34 1LR.

5. A panel of three judges will read the stories, whose writers remain anonymous, and decide a winner. The judges’ decision is final.

6. The winner will receive a prize of £100, to be awarded in person at the Prescot Festival Finale at Prescot Parish Church on Sunday, 24 June, 2012 (time TBC), or shortly afterwards by post if they cannot attend. The winner will be notified before the event.

7. You retain full copyright of your story, but by submitting it, you give the Prescot Festival permission to republish it online or in print.

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