International Competitions

-

 FUll dertails

Poetry, prose and Prizes

Spring into action if you want to enter the 2026 International Competitions hosted by Wells Festival of Literature, now an eagerly contested annual event.

We have the judges – you have the words. Just decide which of the quartet of competitions suits your style of writing and you could be one of the winners to walk away with both kudos and cash. Prizes totalling £5,000 will be awarded to the winning entries in the competition’s four sections: Open Poetry, Short Story, Book for Children, and Young Poets.

Entries are invited from 1 April 2026 until 30 June 2026 in the categories Open Poetry, Short Stories and Book for Children.
There is a longer entry period for Young Poets from 1 April 2026 until 31 July 2026.

All the judges, one for each category, are well-respected experts in their own field so entrants can be confident of the final judgements.

Winners will be announced at a celebratory event at 2pm on 19 October 2026 at Cedars Hall, the Festival venue in Wells. The achievements of all entrants will be publicly recognised at a poetry reading and a prize-giving ceremony where the winners will receive prizes totalling £5,000 between them. There are also special prizes for local winners.

Click on each of the four categories below for full details.

You can now also follow our new Competitions Instagram account: wellsfestivalcompetitions

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DAW

-
Image
Full details  Overview Founded in 1971 by veteran paperback editor Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, DAW Books was the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy. Now almost 50 years and two thousand titles later, DAW has a well-deserved reputation for discovering and publishing the hottest talents in the industry. Many stars of the science fiction and fantasy field made their debuts in the pages of a DAW book, including Patrick Rothfuss , Tad Williams , C. J. Cherryh , Mercedes Lackey , Kristen Britain , Melanie Rawn , C.S. Friedman , and Tanith Lee . Despite its high profile, DAW is still a small private company, owned exclusively by its publishers, Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert. Betsy and Sheila are strongly committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, and to keeping a personal “family” spirit at DAW—something they feel is all too rare in today’s world of international cong...
Read more

Polis Books

-
Full details  Polis Books is an independent publishing company actively seeking new and established authors for our growing list. We are currently acquiring titles in the genres listed on the web site. Please keep in mind that while Polis Books does accept unsolicited submissions, due to the incredibly high volume of unsolicited material we receive, we will only respond to queries if we have interest in the submission. If you have not received a response to your query in 12 weeks you can assume we have passed on it. We know how much time and effort goes into every manuscript, and we sincerely apologize that we cannot reply to every submission individually.  Please keep in mind that we do not publish stand-alone novellas or short stories, and novel-length submissions should generally be a minimum of 60,000 words. We will very rarely consider titles under that length. Note: we do not respond to emails that are not submissions . If you want to know whether w...
Read more

Boyd's Mill and Kane

-
Imprints Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction titles for picture book, middle grade, and young adult audiences. Established in 1990, Boyds Mills Press features picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction books that focus on excellent storytelling, imaginative illustration, and diverse characters. Our exceptionally crafted titles are designed to entertain, inform, and engage children of all ages. We are actively seeking submissions for the Boyds Mills Press imprint.  Wordsong is the only children’s imprint in the United States specifically dedicated to poetry. Wordsong publishes picture book poetry collections as well as poetry collections for middle grade and young adult readers. We publish novels in verse that are made up of discrete, powerful, individual poems. Some of the well-known poets who publish under the Wordsong imprint include Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Marilyn S...
Read more