Many thanks to my (non-writing) friend, Alison, for sending the details of this competition to me.
ReadKirklees are looking for poetry or prose (up to 500 words) with the theme ‘On Your Bike‘.
There are three age groups, 11 and under, 12 – 17 years and Adult. The first prize in each age group is £50 in book vouchers, second prize is £30 in book vouchers and third prize is £20 in book vouchers.
The closing date is Friday 11th July and entry is FREE – so no reason at all not to have a go!
Full details are here.
As you may know, Kirklees is in Yorkshire (where I come from) and there’s another Yorkshire writing competition with a July closing date.
The Friends’ of Morley Literature Festival Short Story Competition closes on 1st July 2014.
This competition has an open theme and up to 3,000 words are allowed (average word length of previous entries has been 1600, so it’s quality not quantity they are after).
Entry to this competition is FREE too!
And, having previously won this competition and met the organiser, I can personally vouch for its integrity. All the entries are assigned a number to keep them anonymous and then read by a panel who each independently score them for a range of criteria. The top-scoring handful are passed to Gervase Phinn who selects the first, second and third prize winners.
First prize is £50, second prize £30 and third prize £20. There’s usually a nice prize presentation event too.
See here for how to get your entry form.
Sally Jenkins 
#1 by susanjanejones on June 6, 2014 - 12:58 pm
Thanks for those details Sally. And well done on your piece in Writing magazine. I recently browsed around your blog looking for that fiverr website, found it now. Also, I missed the first time round you mentioning a health scare, hope all’s well with that now. I hadn’t seen it, so wanted to mention and wish you well…
#2 by Sally Jenkins on June 6, 2014 - 1:01 pm
Thanks for the kind words, Susan. Yes all is well at the moment.
#3 by susanjanejones on June 6, 2014 - 1:14 pm
Glad to hear that Sally.
#4 by Chris Sullivan on June 8, 2014 - 10:48 am
Thank you for the heads up about the competition. I’m assuming the theme of the comp’ ‘On your bike’ is related to the Tour de France which passes through Yorkshire this year.
#5 by Sally Jenkins on June 8, 2014 - 6:06 pm
Hi Chris – you’re probably right about the Tour de France. I hadn’t made the connection but it makes sense.
#6 by readkirklees on July 1, 2014 - 12:37 pm
Just seen this! Yes, it is related – but feel free to do whatever you like with the phrase for your writing 🙂
#7 by Sally Jenkins on July 1, 2014 - 6:23 pm
Thanks for the confirmation. It’s not long until the Tour starts now so inspiration should be easy to find.
#8 by Linda on June 10, 2014 - 5:57 pm
Free competitions? No excuse not to have a go then!
#9 by Sally Jenkins on June 11, 2014 - 4:28 pm
I’m thinking exactly the same thing, Linda!
#10 by Julia on June 24, 2014 - 5:57 pm
Thanks for these leads. I’ve had a go at both of them.
#11 by Sally Jenkins on June 29, 2014 - 6:50 pm
Fingers crossed for you, Julia! Let us know if you’re successful.