The Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2020 (Prize: $175)

The Val Wood Prize has commenced its 2020 creative writing competition. Entries received after the 31st of August 2020 will be declared invalid. Overall prizes to be won by the winners sums up to $175.

Summary

Target Group: Writers around the world
Deadline: 31 August 2020
Mode of Application: E-mail
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Eligibility

• Entries are now being accepted for The Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2020: The Next Chapter
• The overall theme of this year’s competition has been chosen. The organizers want you to pack your entries with optimism, originality and creativity. The competition, is open to anyone over 16 years of age.
• Entrants are free to write about whatever they wish as long as the theme is adhered to.
• Poetry will NOT be considered for the prize.
• Annually, the competition receives a staggering amount of entries from all over the world and they want to keep that up.
• However, this year they want to celebrate the best of local talent too, which is why they split the competition so you can enter the category that best suits you, or both (depending on your postal address).

International Open Prize

• ‘The Next Chapter’ is open to anyone in the world.
• Your entry must be written in the form of an uplifting, feel-good short story with an overall word-count of 2000.
• The winner of the OPEN PRIZE will receive £100 and their entry will be published on the website and shared via various social media outlets.
• One runner up of the OPEN PRIZE will receive £50
• One highly commended entry to the OPEN PRIZE will receive £25

Yorkshire Prize

• The inaugural Yorkshire Prize is open to residents of Yorkshire only, enabling them to celebrate and reward local talent.
• The theme of the competition is The Yorkshire Coast, and is to be written in the form of a short story with an overall word-count of 2000.
• The winner of the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £100 and their entry will be published on the website and shared via various social media outlets.
• One runner up of the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £50
• One highly commended entry to the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £25
• Maximum of 1 entry per person for each PRIZE to the maximum word count of 2000 per entry.
• The winning entries will also be made available on Hull Libraries’ BorrowBox ebook service.

How to submit For The Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2020:

• All entries must be typed in the form of a story (poetry will not be accepted) with a maximum word-count of 2000.
• Entries must be typed on blank sheets in black font and no background images or patterns.
• It must be typed in Arial, Times New Roman or equivalent with 1.5 line spacing.
• This year, the competition is contact-free and eco-friendly and entries must be submitted by email
• Entries should be submitted on or before 5pm on 31 August 2020
• Your name, address, telephone number and email address must be included with your entry on a separate page.
• Please submit as Word or Pages.
• If submitting a PDF document, please ensure that your name is not on the document as entries are judged anonymously.
• Email entries can be sent to [email protected] with the subject: Val Wood Prize: Open for International entries and Val Wood Prize: Yorkshire for anyone who lives and has a postal address in the Yorkshire area and wishes to be submitted for the inaugural Yorkshire prize.
• Entries from already commercially published writers will not be accepted.
• Previous entrants/winners may enter the competition again using alternative entries. Entries that have been submitted before will be disqualified from the competition.
• Entries must be the original work of the competitor, in English, and must not have been published, broadcast or have won a competition prize. No alterations can be made to a story once it has been submitted.
• Entrants can win only one prize. The decision of the judge is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
• The winner of the competition and runners up will be announced in October. Date TBC..
• The winners may be announced online as opposed to the regular winners’ ceremony depending on ongoing social distancing rules.
• The winner may be photographed and interviewed for publicity purposes.
• Copyright remains with the author, but the organizers reserve the right to publish the winning entries online or in print for one year after winning. The organizers reserve right to alter details of the competition if necessary.
• Entrants who do not abide by the above rules will not be considered.