Take part in short story competition for Deepings Literary Festival 2024

A short story competition is providing the opening chapter for a festival that celebrates writing.

Children and adults will be able to take part in the Deepings Literary Festival contest by penning a tale with the title ‘The Call of the Wild’.

While children aged eight to 15 should write up to 500 words, those aged 16 and above should write up to 950 words.

Children’s stories will be judged by Julia Jarman, author of The Big Red Bath, and stories by those aged 16 and over will be judged by crime writer William Shaw known for his DS Alexandra Cupidi series set in Dungeness.

Milly Johnson, an award-winning writer and judge of last year’s competition, said: “This is a wonderful way of loosening your creative side and showing off what you can do, because many people don’t truly know until something like this encourages them to try to find out.

Get the news delivered straight to your inbox - sign up to The Briefing here

“I think it surprises everyone to discover they are capable of so much more than they might have thought.

“Last year we were delightfully taken aback by the level of creativity and standard of writing. Judging was a hard task. For the winners it was a true validation of their capabilities - and they were thrilled.”

Entries should be submitted by March 31 and terms and conditions for the competition are on the festival website, deepingsliteraryfestival.co.uk.

Deepings Literary Festival is from May 1 to 5 and includes events at venues across the Deepings. Details of these will be announced soon.