Competitions

  • 2026 Open Poetry Results

    Congratulations to Laura Strickland for her winning entry I Have A Polaroid Of Me in the Open Poetry Competition. I have a Polaroid of me on a sofa with a bowl of jelly/in a green party hat that covers one eye/and squeezed under an arm is a teddy as big as me with fancy braces/I called…

  • 2026 Short Story Results

    Congratulations to Andrei Romanov for their winning entry Sonechko in the Short Story Competition. Our thanks go to the shortlist team and to Carole Burns, our 2026 Short Story Judge. Without our judges we wouldn’t be able to run the competitions. The winning entries can be downloaded and enjoyed from the table below.

  • 2026 Book for Children Results

    Congratulations to Ruth Stevenson for her winning entry The Lost Selkie Queen  in the Book for Children Competition. Our thanks go to the shortlist team and to Catherine Bruton, our 2026 Short Story Judge. Without our judges we wouldn’t be able to run the competitions.

  • 2026 Young Poets Results

    Congratulations to Silas Mitchell for their winning entry, The Second Trip, in this year’s Young Poets Competition. The Second Trip (Charon Writes a Love Story) Sylvie,Two months old and already learning death.Her first trip to the hospital, second trip back. We fall into the darkness,The soft sky too far above us for us to feel…

  • Young Poets’ Record High

    A record number of 170 entries has been received in the Young Poets’ category of this year’s Festival competitions, beating 2021’s  previous high of 106 entries during the second Covid lockdown. Entries for 2026 closed on Friday 31 July. This increase in numbers follows an extended deadline of an extra month for Young Poets, aged…

  • Prizes for Young Poets

    This is the last call for entries to the Young Poets competition which will close on 31 July. Entrants must be aged between 16 and 22. Extra time has been given this year to allow for summer exams, so there are just a few weeks left to polish up those entries. The other three categories…

  • Turning readers into writers…

    Organising a successful Festival of Literature involves more than solely celebrating an impressive string of established writers and their work; it also means planning for the future. And that includes studying a bumper haul of superb competition entrants, choosing the winners and awarding the generous cash prizes. And who knows? It might even involve discovering…

  • Time to enjoy the shortlists

    Our shortlisting panels have had a very busy – but satisfying – few weeks. The final decision now goes to the judges in all four categories. We do know that the standard of writing yet again this year has been consistently high. Our entrants don’t believe in making life easy for the judges! Of course…

  • The judges are ready for our 2024 Competitions. Are you?

    2023 saw another fiercely contested, but hugely popular, quartet of competitions! The standard in all four categories was high and our winners walked away from the Prize Giving with almost £5000 between them. Our generous prizes are well deserved and much appreciated but the real attraction of the Wells Festival of Literature International Competitions is…

  • 2024 Young Poets Competition

    Our Young Poets Competition is offering bigger cash prizes this year than ever before: First Prize will be £200, Second Prize will go up to £150 and the Third Prize will be £100. Our competitions are now closed. Clare Shaw has four poetry collections with Bloodaxe. The latest collection – Towards a General Theory of…