The Jersey Evening Post writing competition is back

SHARPEN your pencils, charge your laptops or dig out your vintage typewriter…

The Jersey Evening Post Writing Competition, held in conjunction with the Jersey Festival of Words and sponsored by Oakglen Wealth, is back.

From today, wordsmiths of all ages can enter the annual challenge by submitting poetry, flash fiction and short stories.

There are cash prizes for the top three stories or poems in each age category, which all have a deadline of 6 July.

The winner of the poetry competition’s 17-and-above category will also receive the prestigious Alan Jones Prize, named after the Jersey poet, writing mentor and former head of English at Hautlieu who died in 2013.

The winners’ work will be published in the JEP during the festival, which is scheduled to take place between 20 and 29 September across several venues in St Helier.

Former children’s laureate Michael Rosen – author of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – and Samantha McAlister, the producer famed for securing BBC Newsnight’s Prince Andrew interview, have already been announced as speakers at the festival.

William Lamond, investment director at competition sponsors Oakglen Wealth, with last year's winners

The judging panel for the competition is yet to be confirmed.

Announcing the launch of this year’s competition, Paul Bisson, the festival’s vice-chair, said: “This writing competition has been an integral part of the Jersey Festival of Words for many years and has served to bring some truly brilliant writers of all ages and backgrounds to public attention.

“Our hope is that it encourages those in the community with a love of words, poetry or storytelling to get involved and plug directly into the heart of the festival, honing their talents while engaging and entertaining the rest of us in the process.”

Mr Bisson once again urged entrants not to turn to ChatGPT or other AI software to produce their stories.

William Lamond, Oakglen Wealth investment director, said he was “pleased” to announce their continued sponsorship of the competition, which has reached its ninth year of “showcasing the creative writing abilities of our talented Islanders of all ages”.

COMPETITION RULES

Short Story Category

1,500-word limit  

9-13 (£25, £50 and £75)  

14-16 (£25, £50 and £75)  

17 and above (£50, £75 and £100)  

Flash Fiction Category

125-word limit  

Open to all ages (£75)  

Poetry Category

30-line limit  

9-13 (£25, £50 and £75)  

14-16 (£25, £50 and £75)  

17 and above (£50, £75 and £100). The winner of this category will also receive the Alan Jones Prize.  

Entries must be submitted as an attachment to an email to writingcomp@jerseyeveningpost.com by midnight on 6 July.

Competition entrants must be born or resident in Jersey and their work must not have been previously published in any public form, print or digital, or have won a prize in any other competition. 

No more than two entries per person in any one category. Judges are looking for strong original work, with any use of language-generative AI strongly discouraged.