2018 Prescot Festival Short Story Competition

Are you imaginative?  Do you love to tell a good story? Do you have the urge to put pen to paper?

Entry to the 2018 Prescot Festival Short Story Competition is FREE and open to non-professional writers of ALL AGES living in Merseyside and Halton. This year’s theme is DARKNESS & LIGHT. The word cloud above is also full of ideas to kick-start your story.

The writer of the winning short story wins a £100 prize.

Read on for the full competition rules or click here to download a double-sided flyer (PDF). Feel free to print out the flyer to share with friends and relevant community groups, or to display in your local shops or library.

2018 Prescot Festival Short Story Competition Rules

1. To enter, you must live in one of the following six boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Halton, Wirral or Liverpool. You must not have had a piece of fictional writing professionally published, ie, in return for payment. There are no age restrictions. Only one entry per person is allowed.

2. The story you submit must be inspired in some way by the following theme: DARKNESS & LIGHT. It is your choice how to interpret the theme. The story must be your own original work of fiction (no biography, poetry or nonfiction), unpublished, in English, and with no more than 1,000 words.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 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 Friday 25 May 2018. All entries must be received by then. Send your entry to: Prescot Festival Short Story Competition, 12 Earle Avenue, Roby, L36 4JP.

5. A panel of judges will read the stories, whose writers remain anonymous, and decide a winner. The judges’ decision is final. They may award runner-up prizes at their discretion.

6. The winner will receive a prize of £100, to be awarded in person at Poco Coffee, 30 Eccleston Street, Prescot, L34 5QJ, at 7pm on Monday 18 June 2018 (Poetry Evening with Stephen J Regan & David J Costello), or shortly afterwards by post if they cannot attend. The winner will be notified before the event, and their name posted to the festival website on Tuesday 19 June 2018.

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