Sally Jenkins

A quick glance at the newsagent’s shelves will tell you that there are hundreds more markets for articles than there are short stories. But with competitions it’s the other way around – there are plenty of opportunities to win with fiction but very few contests asking for non-fiction. I’m not sure why this should be but it does mean that if you want to sharpen your article writing skills you should grab every opportunity to submit your work for judging – especially if entry is free as it is in the Guardian Travel Writing Competition 2011.

The competition has six categories and the prize for each is a fantastic holiday. They are as follows:

• The Big Adventure – wins a place on the 20-day Spirit of Shackleton trip to Antarctica  
• The UK Trip – wins a stay in a contemporary, glass-fronted cabin (with an outdoor hot tub) in Sherwood Forest
• The Summer Holiday – wins a seven-night summer break in Cancún in Mexico  
• The Short Break – wins a trip to the beautiful city of Aosta in the Italian Alps
• The Family Holiday – wins a snowboarding trip to California for a family of four
• Unusual Accommodation – trip for two to Zambia with Wildestate Africa

All the categories require just 500 words about a holiday that you’ve taken in the past year – I’m sure most of us can manage that and then, who knows, next year’s holiday could be all expenses paid! Closing date is 23rd October 2011 and entry is via email.

For full details plus terms and conditions see here.

And don’t forget I am currently donating £1 to the RNIB for every new subscriber to this blog – details here.