Hastings Book Festival are hosting several writing competitions in 2025.
- Short Story, Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction competitions.
Submission Guidelines
- Short story – max. 2500 words, any theme. Submitting several entries is allowed. Open to writers from anywhere in the world.
- Poetry – max. 40 lines, any theme. Submitting several entries is allowed. Open to writers from anywhere in the world.
- Creative Non-Fiction – max. 1,000 words, theme of ‘Reflections’. Only submit one entry. Open to writers within a 20-mile radius of Hastings.
Judges: Jen Calleja, Sam Davey and James Young.
Entry fee: £8.25 for 1, £15 for 2 and £21 for 3.
Prizes:
- The Hastings Book Festival’s prizes for short story and poetry: 1st prize £250, 2nd prize £100 and 3rd prize £50. Winning entries will also be published on the Hastings Book Festival website.
- The Sussex Prize has one prize for short story and one prize for poetry. Sponsored by Starcroft Cabins and will include a writing retreat. The Sussex Prize winners will also receive mentoring from local writers VG Lee (short stories) and John McCullough (poetry).
- The Founder’s Prize is for creative non-fiction from new and emerging writers within a 20-mile radius of Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea. 1st prize of £100 and a trophy at the festival, 2nd prize of £50 and 3rd prize of £25.
Deadline: 30th June 2025.
All details, all submissions via their website.