Hastings Book Festival Writing Competitions

The Hastings Book Festival has 3 writing competitions for short stories (max 2,500 words), poetry (max 40 lines) open to all and creative non-fiction for writers within a 20 mile radius of Hastings (max 1,000 words).

The main Hastings Book Festival prize entry is open to all, including non-UK based writers. There is no geographical restriction on entrants.

The Sussex Prize is open to residents of East or West Sussex. The Founder’s Prize is open to new writers living within a 20-mile radius of Hastings or St Leonards on Sea.

Entrants to all competitions must be a minimum of 18 years old at time of entry.

A full list of the winners will be published on the organizer website shortly before the Hastings Book Festival in September.

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.