The Bedford Competition
Full details
Share your words with us and the World.
Welcome to…
THE BEDFORD COMPETITION a nonprofit group runs annual international short story and poetry competitions for anyone in the world over 17 years of age.
There are prizes totalling £4,600 and all winning and shortlisted stories and poems are published as an anthology.
SHORT STORY & POETRY COMPETITION MAIN PRIZES – £1500
2nd PRIZES – £300
3rd PRIZES – £200
CYGNATURE SHORT STORY & POETRY PRIZES – £200
The University of Bedfordshire is sponsoring the
Cygnature Prizes for young writers aged 17-25 yrs
BEDFORD SHORT STORY & POETRY PRIZES – £100
All submissions are entered in the Main Prize.
Latest News
Welcome to our brand new website. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 competition is now open from 1st May to 31st October. We are accepting submissions of short stories and poetry in English from across the world.
The anthology of shortlisted and winning stories and poems from the 2023 competition is in the process of being published in paperback and electronic format and will be available very soon in our Bookstore.
Please scroll down to see the announcement of who will be the judges this year.
2024 Competition – Judges
Liv Maidment
Short Story Prize JudgeLiv Maidment is Head of Books and a Literary Agent specialising in literary, upmarket, and book club fiction. She joined the agency in 2020 where she represents a stellar list of literary, upmarket, and book club fiction... Read More
Jessica Mookherjee
Poetry Prize JudgeJessica Mookherjee is author of two poetry collections and her second, Tigress (Nine Arches Press) was Shortlisted for best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize 2021. Her new collection is called Notes from a Shipwreck published by Nine Arches ... Read More
Stephen Bywater
Cygnature Story Prize JudgeStephen Bywater joined the merchant navy at sixteen before studing English at university. After graduating he completed an MLitt at St Andrews. For twenty years he has taught English in Bedford. He is currently teaching English at College in Cambridge. He is the author of ; ... Read More
Rishi Dastidar
Cygnature Poetry Prize JudgeRishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by the Financial Times and BBC amongst many others. He is a fellow of The Complete Works, and a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine. A poem from his Laurel Prize long-listed third collection, Neptune’s Projects (Nine Arches Press), was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2024... Read More
Paul Barnes
Bedford Story Prize JudgePaul Barnes retired from teaching secondary school English Language and Literature in Bedford in 2019. He has been a keen attender of poetry and cultural events in north Beds, and chairs Poetry Café monthly... Read More
Liam Coles
Bedford Poetry Prize JudgeLiam Coles is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge. His project focuses on sound and religiosity in twentieth-century US poetry. He researches how poetic sound forms can interrelate... Read More
Comments
Post a Comment