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South Warwickshire Literary Festival
Creative Writing Competition 2025

Open for submissions January 13th 2025

Closing date March 28th 2025

Open theme

Categories

  • Fiction (max 800 words)

  • Flash fiction (max 200 words)

  • Creative non-fiction (life-writing, travel, memoir…) (max 800 words)

  • Poetry (max 40 lines)

Judges

  • Fiction – Gabrielle Mullarkey

  • Flash fiction – Michael Loveday

  • Creative non-fiction – Simon Whaley

  • Poetry – Gwyneth Box

Entry: £3.90

(includes 30p admin fee)

Two prizes in each category: £75 first prize; £25 commended

 

Winners and commendeds from each category will have the opportunity to read their entries at the Festival  in September 2025

Please read the full guidelines carefully as no monies will be refunded if an entry is rejected for non-compliance.

Judges

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Simon Whaley

Simon Whaley is a freelance writer, bestselling author and photographer. His travel features have appeared in magazines in the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada, including Coast, Britain, The Countryman, This England, Explore England, BBC Countryfile, and The People’s Friend. He also writes the Business of Writing and the Ask The Agent columns in Writing Magazine.  For more information, visit simonwhaley.co.uk.

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Gwyneth Box

Children’s author, award-winning poet, and workshop facilitator, Gwyneth writes in both English and Spanish. She was poet-in-residence at TEDx Leamington Spa, hosted a monthly open mic, and performed at Art in the Park. She has led various face-to-face writing groups and taught workshops for the SWWJ, at the Swanwick Writers' Summer School and at SWLF. She currently hosts the Poetry Society UK’s Global Online Stanza on Zoom. You'll find more about Gwyneth on her website: gwynethbox.com.

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Gabrielle Mullarkey

Gabrielle Mullarkey trained as a journalist and has worked for many years in the magazine industry. The author of three published novels, she’s also contributed nearly 2,000 short stories and serials to women’s magazines, alongside travel and opinion pieces. Her work has been recorded for radio and audio download. She has an MSc in creative writing for therapeutic purposes and works as a creative writing tutor for both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
 

gabriellemullarkey.co.uk 

@authorgabrielle

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Michael Loveday

Michael Loveday is a fiction writer, poet, and creative facilitator. He works freelance as a coach and mentor with creative practitioners of all kinds. He also teaches as a Visiting Lecturer at Bath Spa University and is a resident of The Studio, Bath Spa University’s Enterprise and Innovation Hub. Michael has spent over twenty years as a fiction writer and poet. He Said/She Said, his debut poetry pamphlet, was published by HappenStance Press in 2011. His first full work of fiction, the hybrid novella-in-flash sequence Three Men on the Edge (V. Press, 2018) was shortlisted for the 2019 Saboteur Best Novella Award.

Full rules and guidelines

Please read the rules carefully as no monies will be refunded if an entry is rejected for non-compliance.

 

There are FOUR categories for the competition: 

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  1. Fiction (max 800 words)

  2. Flash fiction (max 200 words)

  3. Creative non-fiction (max 800 words)

  4. Poetry (max 40 lines)

 

The cost per entry is £3.90 (includes 30p admin fee)

 

DEADLINE

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  • The competition opens on January 13th 2025

  • Deadline for submissions: midnight on March 28th, 2025.

  • Winners will be notified by email by the end of May, 2025, Names of the prizewinners and titles of commended pieces will be published on the SWLF website.

 

PRIZES

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  • First prize in each category: £75 plus the opportunity to read the winning entry at the South Warwickshire Literary Festival on 20th September 2025.

  • One commended entry from each category: £25 plus the opportunity to read the winning entry at the South Warwickshire Literary Festival on 20th September 2025.

  • Attendance at the Festival is optional and will be at the expense of the author, NOT of the SWLF.

 

ELIGIBILITY

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  • The competition is open to all writers over the age of 16, except those associated with the organisation and administration of the South Warwickshire Literary Festival.

  • Entries are invited from around the world, but all entries should be in English.

  • Work previously published online, self-published work or work that has been published in small press publications is eligible for entry.

  • Prose (fiction and non-fiction) maximum  800 words (excluding title).

  • Flash fiction maximum 200 words.

  • Poems up to 40 lines (excluding title and blank lines between stanzas).

  • There is no minimum length in any category.

  • There is no theme or other restriction on genre, style or content. However, any entry with content deemed unpublishable by mainstream publishing will be rejected.

 

PRESENTATION & FORMATTING

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  • All entries must be in a clear font, (we suggest Times New Roman or Arial), size 12 or larger.

  • Prose (fiction, flash and non-fiction) must be double-spaced.

  • Pages must be numbered.

  • Entries should be submitted electronically in word, pdf, or txt file format. 

  • Entrant’s name, contact details and word-count of the entry (line count for poems) must appear on the first page of the document. No other information should appear on this page. I.e. if the text of your entry takes three pages, your details and word-count will appear on page 1, your entry content on pages 2, 3 and 4 of the document. This first page is for administrative purposes only and will be removed before the entry is passed to the judging panel.

  • Any piece with the author’s name or other personal identifying mark on the entry itself, i.e. past page 1, will be disqualified.

 

SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

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  • Payment should be made via the links on the SWLF website and your work then emailed to us, quoting the booking ID.

  • If you enter more than one category, you should send the entries separately. (I.e. one email for each category you enter.)

  • The subject line of your submission email should be one of the following, as appropriate: 

    • SWLF competition FICTION

    • SWLF competition NON-FICTION

    • SWLF competition POETRY

    • SWLF competition FLASH FICTION

  • You should include your name and contact details in the body of the email, together with the category and title of your entry and your booking id.

  • Acceptable file formats: Word, PDF, or txt

  • Each entry should be in a separate file attachment, which should be named only with the title of your entry, e.g. ‘The Old Boots’.  

  • Each file should contain the text of your entry and ONE additional page (the first page) with your name, contact details, title and word-count of the entry (line count for poems).This page will be removed before the entry is passed to the judging panel.

  • Entries to be sent to: swlfwritingcompetition@gmail.com

  • No corrections can be made to work after it has been submitted, nor can fees be refunded. 

 

RIGHTS

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Copyright of each entry remains with the author, but by entering the competition you give the organisers the right to share the winning and commended pieces at SWLF 2025. There will be no competition anthology and SWLF does not undertake to publish any entry. 

 

Entries will be judged anonymously. The judges’ decision is final and neither they nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence.

 

Please send your entry to: swlfwritingcompetition@gmail.com

 

JUDGES

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Poetry: Gwyneth Box

Flash: Michael Loveday

Non-fiction: Simon Whaley

Fiction: Gabrielle Mullarkey

 

All entries will initially be read by a panel of experienced readers. The judges will each read an initial longlist of up to 200 entries in their corresponding category. The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judges without notice and not to award a prize if in the judge’s opinion such an action is justified.

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