The literary prize has several categories, for adults there is a poetry section and a short story section, as well as the Young Writers’ prize.
The entry cost for adults is £7 per submission but for young people it is free to enter.
“It’s about encouraging young children to write and not being afraid to use their imagination” said Emma Scattergood, Editorial Director at Fresher Publishing, who founded the competition at Bournemouth University.
She is passionate about involving as many people as she can in the competition who are equally interested in creative writing.
“This is about fresh writing, it’s about new writing, it’s about exciting writing”
“We’ve opened our gates wider now” she explained that the Competition was initially only for unpublished writers but has now widened its entry criteria to writers of any background.
The competition aims to unearth new ideas from undiscovered writers, as well as giving a chance for some to release works they had long forgotten about.
Practicing creative writing can be a therapeutic tool and very beneficial for anyone who seeks to try it.
Fay Lant, who works for National Literacy Trust speaks on how writing has been wrongly hidden away: “A lot of writers I’ve spoken to have said they didn’t realise it was okay to write.”
Competitions are a great chance for writers to sharpen their tools while working on longer term projects such as novels or scripts.
Ms Scattergood told that competitions are: “great at giving writers deadlines.”
Submissions close on January 16th at midnight, so if you’re considering taking part, there’s still time.
See the link below for more details:
https://www.fresherpublishing.co.uk/the-bournemouth-writing-prize/