They say we all have tales to tell. Maybe you have a reflective nature which will come to life as a poem, perhaps you have a short story striving to be put on paper, or maybe a fantastic tale which will fire the imagination of children. There is just one month left for you to put pen to paper and enter the Wells Festival of Literature competitions! Please see our website www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk to find out how you can enter and maybe bag yourself a cash prize!

The author, poet and playwright, Owen Sheers, will be our Open Poetry judge this year. Owen is Professor of Creativity at Swansea University and has an impressive track record. He has won the Somerset Maugham and Wilfred Owen poetry awards and has received the Wales Book of the Year twice. His BAFTA-nominated film-poem 'The Green Hollow' won three BAFTA Cymru awards, including Best Writer. Owen has also been a Writer in Residence for the Wordsworth Trust and the Welsh Rugby Union. Prizes for the Open Poetry Competition will be an amazing £1000 for the first prize, £500 for the second prize and £250 for the third. There is also the opportunity to win a Local Prize of £100!

There is also a competition for Young Poets. Phoebe Stuckes is the judge for this competition. Phoebe originally came from West Somerset but now lives in London. Phoebe has received an Eric Gregory Award as well as The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. Her debut pamphlet 'Gin and Tonic' was shortlisted for The Michael Marks Award 2017 and her first full length collection 'Platinum Blonde' is published by Bloodaxe Books. The prizes for the Young Poets are £150 for first, £75 for second and £50 for third, plus a year's subscription to the Poetry Society for all prize winners.

The judge for our Short Story Competition is Sally Bayley. Sally is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She is a lecturer in English at Hertford College, Oxford. She also teaches academic writing, literature, film and creative writing for the Sarah Lawrence visiting programme at Wadham College Oxford. Her latest book, entitled 'No Boys Play Here' combines forms of drawing and song with scenes from Shakespeare plays. The prize money for this competition is £750 for first, £300 for second and £200 for third prize, as well as an opportunity to win a Local Prize of £100.

The Book for Children competition will be judged by Dr Joanna Nadin, who has written more than 80 books for children, teenagers and adults. Her books include the award winning 'Penny Dreadful' series, the 'Flying Fergus' series with Sir Chris Hoy, as well as the critically acclaimed 'Joe All Alone' which is now a BAFTA- winning BBC series. Joanna has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal twice, has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Prize, the Best Book Awards and Queen of Teen. Her latest series is 'The Worst Class in the World'. Prize money for this competition is also £750 for first, £300 for second and £200 for third, as well as the opportunity to win a Local Prize of £100.

The winning writers will be revealed for the first time and prizes for all these competitions will be presented during the Festival on Monday 18 October. This special occasion event forms one of the highlights of the Festival. Prior to the awarding of the prizes there will be a poetry reading of the winning entries for both the Young Poets and Open Poetry Competitions.

I hope many of you will be spurred on to write that story or poem you have always wanted to, or perhaps dig out, dust off and finish something you started before. All competitions close at midnight on June 30 2021. Go to our website www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk to watch the 2020 Prize Giving and discover last year's winners, as well as to find out how to enter. Good luck with your entry, we look forward to receiving it!