This year, Oxford Festival of the Arts is running a short story competition to celebrate children’s literature. We are seeking stories, of no more than 1,000 words of prose, written by or for children.

Submissions can be on any theme or subject and the competition is open to anyone. Entries will be shortlisted in the following categories: 7-11, 12-16 and 17+.

The stories will be judged by Clare Morgan, Director of the Mst in Creative Writing at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, and Sarah Franklin, founder of regular Oxford event Short Stories Aloud and judge of the 2015 Short Story Costa Book Awards.

Selected winters will be invited to read their stories alongside a published children’s author, during a special evening at Oxford Festival of the Arts in June 2016.

Deadline for entries: 29th April 2016.

For more information and to enter see the Oxford Festival of the Arts website

You may also be interested in our Poetry Live Competition