THE BEDFORD COMPETITION, a nonprofit group, runs annual international short story and poetry competitions for anyone in the world over 17 years of age.

There are prizes totalling £4,600 and all winning and shortlisted stories and poems are published as an anthology. Your work will be judged by acclaimed writers or literary agents. Your success will be celebrated at a special Presentation Event.

All net revenues are used to benefit aspiring writers and to provide funds to literary-leaning  charities.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.