Searchlight Writing for Children Awards is an international competition for aspiring authors writing for children or young adults.

Entries are invited for a  popular children’s picture book text competition. Submit a complete manuscript and a short pitch with what the story is about. This year the competition is for unagented and unpublished writers only.

Prize: Your entry will be included in Searchlight’s Pitch Book of winning stories, which is sent to literary agents and publishers to help your work get noticed. Your entry and biography will be included included in the Winners’ Gallery on the Searchlight Awards’ website, which agents, publishers, friends and family can access.

Entries must be in English. Entrants must be 16 years and over. Multiple entries are permitted.

Judges: Lorna Hemingway.

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.