Deadline: October 31, 2023
Entry fee: £7.50
About the competition
This is a competition that reaches out to help you achieve the recognition you deserve
We are an International Competition, open to everybody aged 17 or over, with prizes totalling £3000 including special awards for young writers and Bedford writers (Please see Rules). All winning and shortlisted entries are published by our partners, Ostrich Books. We donate proceeds to charities that support literary and literacy skills.
The short story competition is for stories up to 3,000 words. The poetry competition is for poems up to 40 lines.
Entrants can write on any theme.
We are keen to encourage quality submissions, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.
Competition guideline
- Enter the competition either by using the online process (Enter Online) or printing out an entry form and sending it together with a hardcopy version of your story by post (Enter Offline).
- Payment is by PayPal, credit or debit card online or by cheque by post. Click here to see entry fees.
- PayPal is a well-established online payment method with excellent security procedures in place. When you make payment by credit or debit card none of your account details will be given to The Bedford Competition. The transaction is handled using only the PayPal online banking system.
- If you are from outside the UK, use the online entry method only. PayPal will handle payment in your local currency.
- Please read the rules carefully as entries that do not comply will be disqualified.
- It is recommended that you click on Entry Form Help and keep this information handy as it will help guide you through the entry and payment process
- Read the whole guideline and submit an entry here.
