CREATIVE writers should sharpen their pencils, charge their laptops and make all other essential preparations for this year's Jersey Festival of Words Writing Competition.
The festival has launched the 2022 competition – organised in partnership with the Jersey Evening Post – which now offers separate opportunities for writers of both fiction and poetry.
There are prizes of £75, £50 and £25 for entrants aged six to eight, nine to 13, and 14 to 16.
Awards of £150, £75 and £50 go to the winners of the 17 and above category whose poetry winner also secures the prestigious Alan Jones Prize, recalling the inspirational poet, teacher and writing mentor who died in 2013.
A single category for flash fiction — where there is a 125 word limit – carries prizes of £100, £75 and £50.
This year Traci O'Dea, the American poet living in Jersey, joins judges from the Festival of Words and the JEP, to select the prizewinners whose stories and poems will be published in the JEP from 21 to 25 September during this year's festival.
A poetry editor for the literary journals Smartish Pace and MOKO: Caribbean Arts & Letters, Ms O'Dea is the author of two poetry collections – Waving and Restricted Movement for which she received a seed funding grant from ArtHouse Jersey.
Announcing the launch of this year's competition, Festival of Words festival director Pippa Le Quesne said: 'We're delighted to be getting back to our annual writing competition. It's always wonderful to see how much talent there is in our community and to discover fresh new voices each year.'
JEP editor Andy Sibcy said that he was delighted that the competition was returning and that the newspaper could again help local writers reach a wider public audience. 'The quality of previous winning entries has been exceptional and we are eagerly looking forward to this year's entries,' he said.
Competition entrants must be born or resident in Jersey and their work must not have been published previously in any public form, print or digital, or have won a prize in any other competition.
For the fiction category there is a 500 word deadline in the three student categories and a limit of 1500 words on entries in the 17 and over category. No more than two entries per person, per category. Poems must not exceed 40 lines. Entries must be submitted as an attachment to an email to:
writingcomp@jerseyeveningpost.com
They must be received by midnight on Sunday 21 August, and winners will be notified by 11 September.