The winner of a past Wells Festival of Literature short story competition is delighted that her efforts are to be rewarded next month with the publication of her first book.

Alice Fowler's short story Incident on the Line won her first prize in the 2021 competition. The story, included in a debut collection called The Truth Has Arms and Legs, will be published by Fly On the Wall Press on 14 July.

Her success is a timely reminder for any writers considering entering this year's competitions as the closing date for competition entries looms – midnight on 30 June is the last chance to get those entries in.

Alice says: "Winning the Wells short story was such a big step in my writing journey and I hope that this will encourage other writers to enter this year's competition."

In each of her 12 stories she delves into a world of change and reinvention, drawing praise from Sally Bayley, 2021's short story judge, who says: "Alice Fowler's stories capture precise and intimate moments of being."

Bayley is herself a published author and lecturer in writing, film and literature at Oxford University.

This year's short story judge is multi-award-winning novelist Claire Fuller who received the Costa Novel Award for Unsettled Ground in 2021. Her new book The Memory of Animals was published in April.

The other categories are Open Poetry, a Book for Children and a Young Poets competition, with prizes ranging from £50 to £1,000.

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Winners will be announced at a special ceremony in Wells in the autumn during the festival which runs from 27 October to 4 November.

For full details of the competitions and how to enter, visit www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk