Arts Derbyshire

21.01.2025

Can you write about ‘Voices’ in a 50-word Festival competition?

Derby Book Festival is challenging children and adults to write a story or poem in up to fifty words on the subject of ‘Voices for its annual Flash Fiction Writing Competition which  launched yesterday (20 January).  In 2025 the Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary and hopes to have a record number of entries.

The winning stories will be printed on a set of bookmarks and will be distributed across Derby and Derbyshire to promote Derby Book Festival.  In previous years, people have been invited to tackle a variety of themes: ‘Love’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Journeys’, ‘Space’, ‘Our World’, ‘Home’, ‘Light’ and ‘Spring’, attracting hundreds of entries each year.  The theme can be interpreted as widely as the author wishes, so long as the story or poem is no longer than fifty words.

Derby Book Festival includes two annual programmes of book-related events, with the Summer Festival from 23 May – 1 June and the Autumn Edition from 14 – 16 November.

Professor Keith McLay, Derby Book Festival Chair and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, said: “The beauty of the Flash Fiction competition lies in the diverse interpretation of its theme. It celebrates creativity, critical thinking, and a richness of perspectives – qualities that mirror the essence of our University.

“We aim to gather the widest possible range of original stories and look forward to reading the inspiring tales that the competition always generates. We are delighted to be a principal partner of the Derby Book Festival and, in particular, to be involved in promoting the annual writing competition.”

The Flash Fiction competition has three age categories: 11 years and under, 12 – 17 years and 18 years and over.  Entries for all categories will be judged by a panel of local writers and creative writing specialists and there will be one winner in each category with a prize of a £50 book token.  There are also separate categories for HMP Foston Hall and HMP Sudbury.

Liz Fothergill, Patron of Derby Book Festival explained: “Our annual Flash Fiction competition is always an extremely popular part of the Festival and it encourages people of all ages to be creative and use their imaginations to write a story or poem, often inspiring them to take their first steps towards a writing career.”

Once the winning stories have been chosen, the Festival’s key funder, the University of Derby, will be running a competition for its Creative Communications students to illustrate the winning entries, which will then be reproduced as Festival bookmarks.

The Festival website has some helpful links to those who are interested in writing Flash Fiction but are not sure where to start.

The set of bookmarks will be printed for the Summer Festival and will be distributed widely across schools, bookshops, local libraries, venues, cafes and arts centres.

To enter the competition, visit the Festival website and submit your story using the online form.

The closing date for the competition is 10pm on Sunday 16 February. The terms and conditions for the competition can also be found on the website, where you can sign up for more information about the Festival.

 

You can also follow the Festival on Twitter at: @DerbyBookFest and ‘like’ the Festival on Facebook: www.facebook.com/derbybookfestival

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